Sudanese city 'living in fear' as paramilitary threat looms

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 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, told AFP news agency, 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".

"Since the capture of El-Fasher, the civilian casualties, destruction and mass displacement there have been mounting. There is no sign of de-escalation," he added.

A military source -- speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief the media -- told AFP on Saturday that the army's "air defence system today shot down a drone launched by the RSF militia towards" El-Obeid.

'Lost their parents'

The fall of El-Fasher two weeks ago gave the RSF control of all five state capitals in the vast western region, in addition to parts of the south.

The army controls most of Sudan's north, east and centre, including Khartoum.

Since El-Fasher's fall, more than 80,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas.

The UN's migration agency said that some have sought refuge in the nearby towns of Tawila, Kebkabiya, Melit and Kutum.

El-Fasher had a population of around 260,000 before the RSF takeover.

Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Sudan, told AFP that many families arriving in Tawila came with "children who are not their own".

"That means that they have to come with children who have lost their parents on the way, either because they've been disappeared, disappeared in a chaos, or they've been detained, or they've been killed," she said.

Survivors have told AFP that women and men were separated on the way out of El-Fasher, and that hundreds of men were detained in nearby towns.

Truce uncertain

The details of the ceasefire proposal put forward by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have not yet been made public.

A senior Saudi official told AFP that it laid out a three-month truce, during which both sides would be encouraged to hold talks in Jeddah on a permanent peace deal.

The UAE has been accused by the UN of supplying arms to the RSF, allegations it has repeatedly denied.

The Sudanese army, meanwhile, has received support from fellow mediators Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as from Turkey, Iran and Russia, according to observers.

The army-aligned government has yet to publicly respond to the truce plan.

Darfur's army-aligned governor, Minni Arko Minnawi -- who is based in the government forces' temporary capital of Port Sudan -- said on Saturday that a ceasefire could not take effect until paramilitaries pulled back.

"The truce must be preceded by the withdrawal of the Janjaweed and mercenaries from residential areas, hospitals and cities, and the release of those abducted, including children and women, and securing the return of the displaced," Minnawi said on X, referring to the RSF.

"Any truce without this means the division of Sudan."

Since erupting more than two years ago, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and triggered a hunger crisis.