The United Nations human rights chief warned Friday that another human rights catastrophe is unfolding around Sudan’s besieged city of al-Obeid, where civilians have endured months of shortages, drone strikes and mounting fears of mass atrocities.
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that the situation in the capital of North Kordofan state showed clear signs of escalating danger. Al-Obeid has become a major focus of fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, known as the RSF, in a war that has devastated the country for more than three years.
“The signs from al-Obeid are clear and unmistakable: Another human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan,” Türk said.
The UN rights office said civilians in and around al-Obeid had been living under siege-like conditions for 18 months, with severe shortages of clean water and repeated drone attacks. Between June 6 and June 28, at least 45 civilians were killed and 41 others injured in 15 drone strikes in al-Obeid and surrounding areas, the office said.
Türk also said UN investigators had documented patterns of summary executions, abductions, torture and sexual violence along routes used by displaced people across the Kordofan region. He urged the international community to act before the violence repeats atrocities seen in al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, last year.
The emergency debate was called by Britain, whose envoy previously warned that up to 500,000 civilians could be at risk of large-scale atrocities as RSF forces reportedly gathered around al-Obeid. The city is one of Sudan’s largest urban centres and has also become a shelter for people displaced from other parts of the country.
Human rights groups and UN officials have accused both sides in Sudan’s war of abuses. The RSF and allied militias have faced repeated allegations of war crimes, ethnic violence, sexual violence and mass killings, particularly in Darfur.
In al-Fashir, at least 6,000 people were killed over three days when the RSF captured the city in late October, according to the UN human rights office. The office said the RSF and allied militias committed war crimes and crimes against humanity there, including mass killings, summary executions, sexual violence and torture.
The human rights organization Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday that RSF fighters carried out murder, torture, rape, enslavement and sexual slavery as part of what it described as a widespread and systematic attack on civilians in and around the North Darfur city.
The war in Sudan began in April 2023 after a power struggle between the army and the RSF turned into open conflict. It has displaced millions of people, pushed parts of the country toward famine and left civilians exposed to repeated attacks as diplomatic efforts have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire.
