Drone strike shocks Sudan city, war inches closer
Drone attacks have intensified in and around al-Obeid in central Sudan, residents say, as the country’s devastating civil war approaches the army-controlled city, leading to serious civilian deaths in at least two cases.
The city is one of Sudan’s most important cities and the capital of North Kordofan state, part of the wider Kordofan region, which lies between the RSF’s Darfur stronghold and the army-controlled eastern half of the country.
Residents say they shifted their focus to Kordofan after paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) tightened their grip on Darfur’s westernmost region in late October, and drones have been hitting al-Obeid and the surrounding area every week.
According to residents, around the same time, paramilitary ground forces began to capture towns and villages in the Kordofan region, while also laying siege to cities in South Kordofan province.
The force has yet to approach Al-Obeid, where daily life continues despite the looming threat and the mass exodus late last year as the fighting intensified.
The army and allied forces deployed on the outskirts of the city.
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 after the army and the RSF clashed over their roles in the planned political transition. It plunged half the population into hunger and famine and destroyed a large part of the country’s economy. Drones are playing an increasingly dominant role; The RSF specifically uses them to usurp the military’s initial air dominance.
Overall deaths from the conflict are difficult to estimate, although researchers say at least tens of thousands of people were killed.
More than 100 civilians were killed in the Kordofan region in the first half of December, according to the UN human rights office. Satellite images from the Yale Laboratory for Humane Research show that nearly 100 new burial mounds appeared in two cemeteries in El Obeid in the two weeks between Jan. 2 and Jan. 14.
The footage also shows evidence of the bombing of the city’s power station and the construction of levees around the city; this is a possible defense against future RSF encirclement.
Residents of Al-Obeid district say that the worst events occurred in the village of Al-Luweib on November 5.
Dozens of people had gathered from afar for a funeral as an army Joint Forces ambulance passed by, and a drone followed shortly after.
The drone, which residents assumed was directed by the RSF, opened fire on the funeral procession, killing 65 people, all women and children, according to four al-Luweib residents who spoke to Reuters.
The incident is reminiscent of attacks frequently documented by Reuters near or against ambulances and clinics in al-Fashir in Darfur where the RSF allegedly harbored enemy forces.
The bodies of the victims, some dismembered by the impact, were later buried in a mass grave, residents told Reuters.
Reuters could not independently verify the accounts. RSF did not respond to a request for comment.
More recently, in early January, Abdullah Muhammad Ahmed’s wife, seven grandchildren and two other female relatives were killed in an attack on the house they rented in al-Obeid after fleeing their village following the RSF offensive.
They are among about 43,000 people who fled their homes in North Kordofan between late October and December 31, and about 65,000 who fled the region as a whole, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
