Sudanese people ‘trapped between drones and incarceration’ in Al Obeid, says UN mission

The Sudanese city of Al Obeid is living in “constant fear” due to drone strikes from one side in the civil war and arrests and torture by the other, UN-appointed investigators have warned.

A fact-finding mission for Sudan said in its latest report that the war was becoming more widespread and dangerous for civilians.

Drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have killed and injured civilians, destroyed homes, schools and shelters, and severely damaged water and electricity systems, the report said. It added that the attacks may amount to war crimes.

Meanwhile, thousands of people have been arrested by Sudanese Armed Forces security cells, said Mona Rishmawi, one of the mission’s experts. She said people were detained and tortured in Al Obeid Central Prison and other “unofficial locations”.

“Thousands have been arrested by SAF security cells, detained and tortured in unofficial locations and in El Obeid Central Prison, kept under appalling conditions,” said Ms Rishmawi.

At the same time, SAF-affiliated security actors have intensified surveillance and targeted people engaged in humanitarian, human rights and peace work, she added.

Al Obeid Central Prison is believed to be holding 2,000 people despite a capacity of 450, with one former inmate describing up to 40 people being crammed into a small cell.

According to the report, the Sudanese Armed Forces deployed “personnel and military vehicles in residential neighbourhoods, near civilian homes, markets and other populated areas” which has “exposed civilians to attacks”. The proximity of military objectives “does not diminish the obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians or relieve either party of these obligations,” it added.

Fewer than one in three hospitals in Al Obeid remain operational after repeated strikes, one expert told investigators.

“The war is becoming more geographically extensive, technologically sophisticated and increasingly dangerous for civilians,” the Independent International Fact‑Finding Mission for Sudan said.

The mission is also investigating a drone strike on a market in Abyei on October 19 that killed at least 80 people, reportedly carried out by the SAF. October had seen the highest number of drone attacks on civilians since the conflict began, mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman said.

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Sudan Armed Forces drone attack kills more than 150 at market

Another investigator, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, called for a UN arms embargo currently limited to Darfur to be widened to all of Sudan.

Marking one year since the RSF's bloody takeover of El Fasher, she said people had not been held accountable. “The passage of time should not diminish attention to what has happened in El Fasher. On the contrary, it should remind us of the cost of impunity.”

Last month, the UN called for an immediate halt to drone attacks in Sudan's civil war, warning that the weapons have become the leading cause of civilian casualties this year.

Rosemary DiCarlo, UN undersecretary general for political and peacebuilding affairs, told the Security Council in mid-October that a mutual ban on drones had the “potential to dramatically improve protection for civilians”.

“At a minimum, they [the warring parties] should agree on concrete commitments and operational arrangements to strictly regulate their drone use,” she said.

Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023 between the SAF and the RSF. The war, now well into its fourth year, has created one of ​the world's worst humanitarian crises, displacing about 14 million people.

SAF leader Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan has vowed to continue fighting until the RSF is defeated, rejecting repeated attempts by the US and regional powers to broker a ceasefire. Both sides have been accused of grave abuse and war crimes.