By Rebecca Tinsley *
A genocide is unfolding in Sudan. Again. The 500,000 residents of El Obeid in North Kordofan face the same fate as the estimated 60,000 who were slaughtered in October 2025 in the Darfur city of El Fasher. Now, the same warring militias are closing in on El Obeid, with ethnic and religious minorities, including Sudan’s long-persecuted Christians, at risk.
In a phone call with the Darfur Diaspora Association this week, a doctor in El Obeid described the constant bombardment of the city with drone attacks.
“Roads are closed, preventing the delivery of food and essential supplies. We fear famine may strike the population, similar to what happened in El Fasher. There is a major crisis at the hospitals, particularly at the Children’s Hospital and the Kidney Dialysis Centre, due to critical shortages. Every day, people are being killed by drones. Children and elderly people are dying on a daily basis, and livestock are targeted.”
Anneliese Dodds MP, who chairs the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sudan, expressed frustration at the international community’s repeated verbal condemnations of the violence without taking action such as sanctions or the enforcement of international law. Dodds said that officials’ disapproval had done nothing to stop the massacre of 60,000 civilians in El Fasher. Echoing Dodds in a Parliamentary debate in London, Ian Duncan Smith told MPs, “All the talk is worthless.”
The failure to enforce international law was also present when the United Nations Security Council discussed Sudan on Friday, June 26th. The Council was warned about the imminent threat to El Obeid, the widespread use of sexual violence and ethnically motived attacks, and the exploitation of children by all sides. Council members “expressed deep concern” and called on “all parties to the conflict to immediately halt the fighting”, urging member states to “refrain from external interference.”
Yet, only America is increasing its sanctions on the warring parties. The USA includes the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the entities it has targeted, earning the fury of representatives of the SAF at the UN. America accuses the SAF of repeatedly blocking peace initiatives, restricting humanitarian access and using chemical weapons.
Since the war began in April 2023, the SAF has devoted massive diplomatic and social media efforts on persuading the international community that it is the legitimate Sudanese government. However, Sudanese civil society activists point out that it was the SAF together with its now-enemy, the Rapid Support Forces, which illegally overthrew the transitional civilian government of Abdalla Hamdok in 2021. Both the SAF and RSF are accused by respected rights monitors of indiscriminately attacking population centres and civilian infrastructure. Sudan specialists caution that the brutal, hard-line Islamists who ruled Sudan for thirty years under the dictatorship of Field Marshall Bashir are still in control of the SAF. They will prevent any genuine transition to civilian government when the current conflict ends, warn observers.
The UN Secretary General’s envoy, Pekka Haavisto, is in consultations with the Quad group of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the USA. Yet, credible research by human rights groups and academics has established that all Quad members, with the exception of America, are providing support for one militia or other. Sudan specialists question the usefulness of such consultations without the threat of enforcing international law with sanctions against those prolonging the proxy war.
The UN Security Council is split between those countries attaching blame for the atrocities to only one side in the fighting, the RSF, and those nations who acknowledge that the SAF are also breaking international law, indiscriminately bombing civilians, and causing mass casualties.
Sudanese Diaspora groups warn that time is running out for civilians in El Obeid. Human rights groups continue to stress the importance of extending the existing UN arms embargo from Darfur to cover all of Sudan. They also advocate for a no-fly zone, and sanctions on those neighbouring countries perpetuating the violence. However Russian and Chinese representatives on the Security Council continue to block any such actions. Stronger political will is needed to break the impasse and offer hope to the embattled residents of El Obeid.
*Rebecca Tinsley is the founder of the human rights group Waging Peace
