More than 5,500 children displaced by fighting around el-Obeid
Save the Children says siege conditions, drone strikes and overcrowding are worsening risks for children in the Sudanese city.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Fighting around Sudan’s strategic city of el-Obeid has newly uprooted more than 5,500 children, Save the Children said, warning that thousands more remain exposed as the battle intensifies. The charity said families reaching displacement sites and host communities are facing worsening shortages of shelter, water, healthcare and schooling.
Save the Children said overcrowding is straining services that were already limited in and around the city. The group also said the pressure on displaced families is deepening a humanitarian crisis in a city that had served as a key aid route for northwestern Sudan.
Al Jazeera reported that el-Obeid has more than half a million residents and has become a central front in the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group that controls Darfur. The city also hosts the government’s 5th Infantry Division, according to Al Jazeera.
Drone attacks and shortages
The RSF has besieged el-Obeid for months, Al Jazeera reported, while drone attacks have killed civilians and damaged civilian infrastructure. Save the Children said the attacks have contributed to severe shortages of fuel and water.
Emad, a resident of el-Obeid who spoke to Save the Children, said June brought heavy drone fire in and around the city. He told the charity that about 11 fuel stations were struck, along with fuel tankers and water tankers inside the city.
Save the Children said siege-like conditions and crowding linked to internal displacement have worsened a seasonal cholera outbreak. The charity cited Sudan’s State Ministry of Health as confirming 300 cases.
The group said it is especially worried about the mental strain on children who have seen violence, lost relatives or been forced to flee repeatedly during the past three years. Save the Children said children under 18 account for about 55 percent of Sudan’s displaced population.
Francesco Lanino, Save the Children’s deputy country director in Sudan, said displacement for children often means losing school, medical care, clean water and protective community networks. The charity called the conditions facing newly displaced families increasingly difficult.
Warnings after el-Fasher
Al Jazeera reported that rights groups documented mass killings and sexual violence against civilians, including children, after RSF fighters captured el-Fasher, the capital of Darfur, in October following an 18-month siege. The United Nations and rights groups have warned that el-Obeid could face a similar outcome, according to Al Jazeera.
The UN Human Rights Council passed a motion on Monday condemning what it called escalating RSF attacks on el-Obeid, Al Jazeera reported. The move came as the city’s humanitarian situation drew wider international concern.
Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023, when a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF became an armed conflict, according to Al Jazeera. Now in its fourth year, the war has killed thousands and pushed 4.4 million people into neighbouring countries, Al Jazeera reported.
Al Jazeera said the conflict has included widespread human rights abuses, including alleged ethnic cleansing and genocide. Attempts to stop the fighting or secure a ceasefire have made little progress, and a United States-backed effort to start peace talks last year was abandoned after Sudan’s government alleged bias toward the RSF, according to Al Jazeera.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.