Early in the morning of 12 August, life in the embattled Sudanese city of el-Obeid was strangely normal.
The streets were full of children on their way to school. Voices selling fruit drowned out the rumble of buses, and under the shade of trees people snatched a cup of tea or coffee before heading to work.
A certain sense of optimism had diffused through the North Kordofan state capital.
Not only had the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) partially lifted the long Rapid Support Forces (RSF) siege on el-Obeid, but the rainy season was also beginning, heralding a physical and metaphorical change in fortunes for people who had suffered with severe scarcities of food or clean water.
Suddenly, everything changed. The crowds scattered in all directions and people pointed at the sky. There, RSF drones reappeared, and so the residents’ fears as well.
