Aid groups urge swift action to avert ‘atrocities’ in Sudan’s el-Obeid
Al Jazeera
•Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:32:14 +0000
📰 What Happened
Thirty-eight civil society organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, issued an urgent open letter on Friday, June 26, 2026, calling on the United Nations Human Rights Council to take "bold steps towards atrocity prevention and accountability" as fears mount that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are preparing to attack the city of el-Obeid in Sudan. The letter demands that the UN agency convene an urgent debate, send a fact-finding mission, advance accountability for violations committed in Sudan, and end the impunity of perpetrators and those backing and enabling them.
El-Obeid, a strategic hub in the South Kordofan region, has been encircled for months by the RSF, which has been fighting Sudan's army since April 2023. The letter warns that the city, having endured 18 months of "siege-like conditions," is "at risk of an imminent ground offensive by the RSF and their allied forces." The UN has previously voiced fears that there could be a repeat of atrocities committed during the RSF's October 2025 assault on the city of el-Fasher, which it said bore "hallmarks of genocide." The international community's failure to prevent previous mass atrocities in Sudan has given the warning an urgent and desperate tone.
🔍 The Backstory
Sudan's current civil war erupted in April 2023 when tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) exploded into open conflict. The RSF, which evolved from the Janjaweed militias that carried out the Darfur genocide in the early 2000s, has been accused of widespread atrocities including systematic ethnic violence, sexual violence, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 8 million people, and created what the UN describes as the world's largest hunger crisis. The Darfur region, where the RSF is strongest, has seen some of the worst violence, with the October 2025 assault on el-Fasher representing a particularly brutal chapter. The city of el-Obeid, located in North Kordofan state, is a strategically important crossroads that links multiple regions and has been under siege-like conditions for months, with residents facing severe shortages of food, water, and medicine as the RSF tightens its grip around the city.
🎯 Why It Matters
The impending threat to el-Obeid represents yet another potential mass atrocity in a conflict that has already produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The RSF's previous assault on el-Fasher, which the UN described as bearing hallmarks of genocide, demonstrated the paramilitary force's willingness to commit large-scale violence against civilian populations. If el-Obeid falls, it would represent a catastrophic expansion of the conflict and potentially trigger ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. The international community's repeated failure to prevent such atrocities in Sudan underscores the profound weaknesses in global atrocity prevention mechanisms.
Thirty-eight civil society organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, issued an urgent open letter on Friday, June 26, 2026, calling on the United Nations Human Rights Council to take "bold steps towards atrocity prevention and accountability" as fears mount that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are preparing to attack the city of el-Obeid in Sudan. The letter demands that the UN agency convene an urgent debate, send a fact-finding mission, advance accountability for violations committed in Sudan, and end the impunity of perpetrators and those backing and enabling them.
El-Obeid, a strategic hub in the South Kordofan region, has been encircled for months by the RSF, which has been fighting Sudan's army since April 2023. The letter warns that the city, having endured 18 months of "siege-like conditions," is "at risk of an imminent ground offensive by the RSF and their allied forces." The UN has previously voiced fears that there could be a repeat of atrocities committed during the RSF's October 2025 assault on the city of el-Fasher, which it said bore "hallmarks of genocide." The international community's failure to prevent previous mass atrocities in Sudan has given the warning an urgent and desperate tone.
Sudan's current civil war erupted in April 2023 when tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) exploded into open conflict. The RSF, which evolved from the Janjaweed militias that carried out the Darfur genocide in the early 2000s, has been accused of widespread atrocities including systematic ethnic violence, sexual violence, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 8 million people, and created what the UN describes as the world's largest hunger crisis. The Darfur region, where the RSF is strongest, has seen some of the worst violence, with the October 2025 assault on el-Fasher representing a particularly brutal chapter. The city of el-Obeid, located in North Kordofan state, is a strategically important crossroads that links multiple regions and has been under siege-like conditions for months, with residents facing severe shortages of food, water, and medicine as the RSF tightens its grip around the city.
The impending threat to el-Obeid represents yet another potential mass atrocity in a conflict that has already produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The RSF's previous assault on el-Fasher, which the UN described as bearing hallmarks of genocide, demonstrated the paramilitary force's willingness to commit large-scale violence against civilian populations. If el-Obeid falls, it would represent a catastrophic expansion of the conflict and potentially trigger ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. The international community's repeated failure to prevent such atrocities in Sudan underscores the profound weaknesses in global atrocity prevention mechanisms.