UN orders urgent inquiry into alleged atrocities in Sudan’s El Obeid

The United Nations Human Rights Council has ordered an urgent inquiry into alleged human rights violations and abuses in and around the Sudanese city of El Obeid, warning of an imminent risk of large-scale atrocities as fighting intensifies between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The 47-member council adopted the resolution by consensus after an emergency debate requested by Britain and backed by Germany, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands.

The resolution condemns escalating violence by the RSF and mandates the U.N.’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan to urgently investigate alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in and around El Obeid.

Britain’s Human Rights Ambassador Eleanor Sanders told the council there were alarming similarities between the current situation in El Obeid and the events that preceded mass atrocities in El Fasher, North Darfur, last year.

Resisting past horrors

“These horrors must not be repeated,” Sanders said, warning that hundreds of thousands of civilians remain at risk if the international community fails to act.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk last week described the situation in and around El Obeid as a “human rights catastrophe”, citing relentless drone attacks, summary executions, torture, sexual violence and severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies after nearly 18 months of siege-like conditions.

More than 219,000 people have been displaced across the Kordofan region since February alone.

El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, is one of Sudan’s largest and most strategically important cities, linking central Sudan with the western Darfur region.

The RSF has massed forces around the city in recent weeks, raising fears of a major assault that aid agencies say could mirror the devastating attack on El Fasher in 2025, where thousands of civilians were reportedly killed and entire communities displaced.