A UN official called for aid to be allowed into Sudan urgently, and called on the RSF to pull back [Getty]
The Sudanese city of El-Obeid is only “weeks” away from a humanitarian disaster unless aid is urgently allowed in, a UN official said on Tuesday, as fears grow of an imminent paramilitary offensive.
A strategic hub in the southern Kordofan region, the city has been encircled for months by the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group that has been fighting Sudan’s army since April 2023.
Mohamed Refaat, Sudan chief of mission for the International Organisation for Migration, said aid agencies, including the IOM, had intermittent access in recent months but have now suspended missions as insecurity worsens along key routes.
“If the siege is not lifted, and if unconditional access for humanitarian aid is not allowed, within weeks, or at most one or two months, we will reach the same tragic levels we saw in El-Fasher,” Refaat said.
El-Fasher is the Darfur city that fell to the RSF last October after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment, culminating in a violent assault on the army’s last stronghold in western Darfur.
The UN has warned of a buildup of RSF forces around El-Obeid, raising fears that a ground offensive could be imminent. It has also warned of an “imminent risk of mass atrocities”, urging the RSF to pull back.
According to Emergency Lawyers, a rights group, near-daily drone strikes in recent days have targeted fuel stations, the main power facility, and trucks carrying food and fuel.
Sudan’s army has sought to fend off the advance, with a government source telling AFP it had destroyed significant RSF equipment en route. But the fighting has done little to ease conditions for civilians.
Living conditions are deteriorating rapidly, Refaat said, with food prices soaring, water becoming increasingly unaffordable and medical supplies dwindling.
A 10-litre jerrycan of water now costs about 15,000 Sudanese pounds (20 dollars), Refaat said, while food prices have risen by between 60 and 300 percent over the past two months, depending on the commodity.
If assistance is not allowed soon, Refaat warned, “this could lead to famine due to the siege”.
Famine has already been declared in El-Fasher and in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, with 20 additional areas at risk, according to the UN.
Since El-Fasher’s fall, fighting has intensified across Kordofan, forcing more than 130,000 people to flee.
