PORT SUDAN: Residents of southern Sudan’s El-Obeid have said they are living in fear as paramilitaries appear to position themselves for an assault, with the army reporting intercepting an RSF drone attack on the city on Saturday.

The North Kordofan state capital and regional hub lies roughly 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of the capital Khartoum, and would be a strategic prize for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with Sudan’s army since April 2023.

On Thursday, the RSF said it had accepted a truce proposal put forward by mediators, but the UN subsequently said it saw “no sign of de-escalation” and warned of more fighting to come.

“We are especially worried after what happened in El-Fasher,” Soaad Ali, from El-Obeid’s Karima neighbourhood, said, referring to the RSF’s capture of the last army stronghold in western Darfur.

That takeover was followed by reports of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions, and looting, triggering international condemnation and fears that the conflict was shifting into the oil-rich Kordofan region.

El-Obeid, which hosts an airport, sits on a key supply route linking Darfur and Khartoum.

The UN reported that 40 people were killed in the city on Monday in an attack on a funeral.

And last week, the RSF captured the town of Bara, north of El-Obeid, prompting more than 36,000 people to flee the town and four others in North Kordofan over six days, according to the UN.

“We are living in fear,” said a resident of El-Obeid’s Qubba neighbourhood, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

“Officials try to reassure us, but... after what happened in Bara, our fears are growing.” The day after the RSF announced it supported mediators’ truce proposal, the UN warned of “preparations for intensified hostilities” in Sudan.

The body’s rights chief Volker Turk, in particular, issued “a stark warning about events unfolding in Kordofan”.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2025