Countries warn of imminent atrocities as Sudan RSF nears al-Obeid
Western governments warned of looming atrocities around El Obeid as RSF drone strikes and troop buildups raised fears for 500,000 civilians.
Western governments warned that the Rapid Support Forces could imminently unleash atrocities in and around El Obeid, a strategic North Kordofan crossroads already battered by drone strikes and shelling. The alarm, delivered at the United Nations Human Rights Council, showed how far the danger has advanced and how much of the international response still depends on public warnings rather than direct intervention.
Norway’s ambassador, Tormod Endresen, said about 500,000 civilians were at risk of large-scale atrocities, including more than 100,000 internally displaced people already in the area of concern. The statement was delivered on behalf of the Coalition for Atrocity Prevention and Justice for Sudan, which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway and said it was joined by 21 other countries. Britain listed Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Moldova, Belgium, Denmark, Romania, Finland, Malta, North Macedonia, Poland, Czechia, Sweden and Spain among the additional participants.
The pressure on display was diplomatic, but the warning was explicit. The coalition said the international community was watching the military build-up and that inaction could carry catastrophic costs if the RSF pressed into the city. The question hanging over Geneva was not whether diplomats understood the risk, but what leverage they were ready to use to stop it.
Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, separately warned that an imminent offensive on El Obeid risked serious international crimes and would deepen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis. His office said that warning followed reports of a significant RSF and allied troop build-up around the city, along with intensified drone strikes and artillery shelling.
The city has already absorbed a heavy toll. Drone strikes killed at least 16 people in El Obeid on June 11, and 23 people on June 12. By June 14, RSF drones were reported to have targeted fuel supplies in the city for a fifth consecutive day. El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, links Khartoum with Darfur and has been under repeated assault since the war began. A previous RSF siege lasted from April 2023 until February 23, 2025.
The wider humanitarian picture is even grimmer. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says Sudan has more than 9 million internally displaced people, the world’s largest internal displacement crisis, and more than 30 million people needed humanitarian assistance in 2025. The Global Protection Cluster says North Kordofan hosts more than 231,000 displaced people, many of them trapped in or moving toward El Obeid. In Sudan, the warning has again come before the rescue.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
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