Sudan's El-Obeid Under Siege: "Civilians Should Not Have to Wait for Death"

[Celerity]

Drone strikes, water shortages, and blackouts have turned North Kordofan’s capital into a trap for hundreds of thousands—including displaced people who fled there hoping for safety.

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/sudan-war-genocide-obeid-north-kordofan-darfur


Women and children queue to receive food being distributed in al-Mohayra camp for displaced people, near the Sudanese city of El-Obeid. Photo by AFP via Getty Images.

El-OBEID, SUDAN—Masjid Maki had already been displaced once. The 53-year-old schoolteacher fled the city of An-Nuhud with her husband, Hussein Abd al-Baqi, 66, and their three children at the end of May 2025. When they reached El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, roughly 220 kilometers from An-Nuhud, they rented a house in the Qubba neighborhood, mistakenly believing they had found safety.

Sudan has been at war since April 2023, when a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, collapsed into an open conflict that has since devastated the country and killed and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Since June 9, drone strikes attributed to the RSF have hit El-Obeid repeatedly, killing more than 40 people and wounding dozens, according to the local emergency response team. Most of the city’s fuel stations have been destroyed. The electricity generation plant has been struck.

Water pumps, which depend on electricity to function and have no solar backup, have fallen silent. Bread ovens have gone dark. Markets shutter at the sound of any drone overhead, as traders no longer dare to bring goods into the city, driving up prices on everything from food to medication for chronic illnesses. By the end of June, Masjid was packing her bags again. “Civilians should not have to wait for death and war to start inside a besieged city that is on the verge of collapse,” she told Drop Site News.

snip