UN Investigators: Civilians in Sudan's El Obeid Trapped Between Drone Strikes and Arbitrary Arrests, Only About 30% of Hospitals Still Working
UN News reported on October 28 that the UN-appointed Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan released a new report finding that civilians in El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, live in constant fear of drone attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and of a wave of arbitrary arrests by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The investigators warned that the war is becoming more geographically extensive, more technologically sophisticated and increasingly dangerous for civilians.
The report, titled "Sudan's Unrelenting War," found that RSF drone strikes continue to kill and injure civilians in El Obeid, damaging homes, schools, displacement sites and electricity and water systems, and may amount to war crimes. After the attacks, only around 30 per cent of hospitals in the city remained operational, one expert told the Mission.
At the same time, SAF-affiliated security actors have intensified surveillance and targeted people engaged in humanitarian, human rights and peace work. "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 Mona Rishmawi, an expert member of the Mission. "These practices must stop immediately." The prison reportedly holds some 2,000 people against a capacity of about 450, with up to 40 people confined in cells measuring roughly 2.5 by 2 metres.
Mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman said October had seen the highest number of drone attacks on civilians since the conflict began in April 2023, and that investigators had found evidence of a transnational network supporting the RSF involving individuals and entities in Chad, Puntland in Somalia, southeastern Libya and the United Arab Emirates. Fellow expert Joy Ngozi Ezeilo reiterated the Mission's call to expand the UN arms embargo, currently limited to Darfur, to all of Sudan.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于纽约的联合国总部。调查团已向联合国大会第三委员会汇报其调查结果。照片：CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the Fact-Finding Mission presented its findings to the General Assembly's Third Committee. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
