A new report by the UN Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan says RSF drone strikes on El Obeid may amount to war crimes. It also finds that thousands of people have been arrested and tortured by SAF-affiliated security cells.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan released a report on 28 October, Sudan's Unrelenting War: Civilian Devastation and Deepening Insecurity in El Obeid. It warns that the war is becoming "more geographically extensive, technologically sophisticated and increasingly dangerous for civilians", according to UN News.
Drone strikes
The mission found that Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone strikes continue to kill and injure civilians in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan. It said the strikes have damaged homes, schools, displacement sites and electricity and water systems, and may amount to war crimes. One expert told the mission that only about 30 per cent of the city's hospitals remain operational. Mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman said October had seen the highest number of drone attacks on civilians since the war began in April 2023.
Arrests and torture
The report is equally severe about the army side. "Thousands have been arrested by SAF security cells, detained and tortured in unofficial locations and in El Obeid Central Prison, kept under appalling conditions," said mission member Mona Rishmawi. "These practices must stop immediately."
The prison reportedly holds some 2,000 people against a capacity of about 450. One former detainee described up to 40 people held in a cell of roughly 2.5 by 2 metres. The mission said security actors affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have stepped up surveillance and targeted people doing humanitarian, human rights and peace work, The New Arab reported.
Wider investigations
The mission said it is investigating a drone attack on a market in Abyei on 19 October, reportedly carried out by forces of the military government, which killed at least 80 people. It is also looking into reported Egyptian airstrikes on gold-mining sites near the Sudan–Egypt border that killed at least 72 miners.
Asked about arms supplies, Othman said investigators had found evidence that individuals and entities in Chad, Puntland, south-eastern Libya and the UAE were involved in a transnational network supporting the RSF. He added that the mission had not "linked any of the neighbouring States". Fellow expert Joy Ngozi Ezeilo repeated the call to extend the UN arms embargo, now limited to Darfur, to the whole of Sudan: "Sovereignty should not shield mass atrocity crimes, period."
Why it matters
El Obeid is held by the army and has been identified as at risk of famine. The report's account of mass detention by SAF-linked security cells shows that abuses are not confined to one side. It strengthens the case for independent monitoring in every area of the country.
Photo: Street traffic in El Obeid (Al-Ubayyid), 2020. Matab Hamed, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.