The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan laid bare the mounting dangers facing civilians in El Obeid and across the country in a new report released on Wednesday, documenting expanding drone warfare, attacks on vital infrastructure and intensifying state repression, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said.
Source: OHCHR
The report, titled “Sudan's Unrelenting War: Civilian Devastation and Deepening Insecurity in El Obeid”, found that the strategic city remains partially encircled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Drone strikes attributed to the RSF continue to kill and injure civilians, damage schools, displacement sites and other civilian infrastructure, and disrupt access to healthcare, electricity and water, the Mission said.
Trapped between drones and detention
At the same time, security forces affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have stepped up mass surveillance and arbitrary arrests, spreading fear among the population, the Mission found. In a city of 600,000 inhabitants, human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, lawyers, trade unionists, community leaders and civilians perceived as critical of the authorities face surveillance, threats, intimidation and arbitrary detention, it said.
The Mission said it had received credible accounts of incommunicado detention, torture, ill-treatment, deaths in custody and allegations of sexual violence against female detainees, and that these acts may amount to war crimes. “Thousands have been arrested by the SAF's security cells and detained and tortured in unofficial locations as well as in the El Obeid Central Prison under appalling conditions,” said Mona Rishmawi, an expert member of the Mission.
“The situation in and around El-Obeid remains grave and the risk of atrocities are high,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. “The conflict is becoming more geographically extensive, more technologically sophisticated and increasingly dangerous for civilians.”
One year after El Fasher
The report comes one year after the takeover of El Fasher and surrounding areas by the RSF and affiliated actors, where the Mission previously found that violations, including attacks against civilians and targeted ethnic communities, bore the hallmarks of genocide. One year later, the Mission said, accountability remains absent and survivors remain displaced.
The Mission said repeated RSF drone attacks on residential neighbourhoods, schools, displacement sites and essential infrastructure in El Obeid may amount to war crimes, and that the deployment of SAF personnel and allied forces in residential neighbourhoods heightened foreseeable risks to civilians. Humanitarian action, it said, has been constrained by both sides through attacks, bureaucratic barriers, militarisation and restrictions on reaching people in need.
The report was issued amid continued deadly attacks in Blue Nile State, a drone strike in Abyei that reportedly killed scores of civilians, and other assaults near the Sudan-Egypt border which reportedly killed dozens of artisanal miners, the Mission said, adding that it is investigating those incidents. In its daily briefing on Wednesday, the United Nations also condemned reported drone strikes in Nyala, South Darfur, which it said killed dozens of people and injured more than 150 others, and reported strikes that damaged an electricity station and fuel stations in Al Jazirah State.
Source: United Nations daily briefing, 28 October 2026
External actors “fueled the war”
While both the RSF and the SAF bear primary responsibility for the devastation in Sudan, external actors have fueled the war and benefited from it, the Mission said, pointing to its September report on transnational networks that supplied weapons, military equipment, drone-related technology, logistical support and foreign personnel.
The Mission repeated its call on all parties to comply with international humanitarian law, protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, allow rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access, and end arbitrary detention, torture and reprisals. It also called on all states to take meaningful measures to prevent the transfer of weapons, fighters and other support that may contribute to violations and international crimes in Sudan. Sudan's war between the SAF and the RSF began on 15 April 2023.