Drone strikes are raining down on el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, as the Rapid Support Forces maintain a months-long siege on the city. The Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF both appear focused on military victory rather than any negotiated settlement, according to Al Jazeera, as international efforts to broker a ceasefire continue to stall.
El-Obeid sits 550 kilometers southwest of Khartoum and serves as the primary gateway connecting the capital to the vast Darfur region. The city hosts the SAF's 5th Infantry Division and has become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians who fled violence elsewhere in Sudan.
Thirty-eight international NGOs, along with the United Nations and countries including Qatar, have sounded alarms over the escalating drone attacks and the potential for mass atrocities. They warned el-Obeid could face the same devastation recently seen in el-Fasher.
US diplomatic efforts, led by Massad Boulos, an adviser to President Trump, have pushed for a comprehensive ceasefire. Those efforts have run into the hardened positions of both military commanders.
SAF commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has rejected unconditional truces, stating that the army would operate with the precision of "digging with a needle" until the RSF was entirely dismantled.
The two sides are offering sharply different accounts of the conflict. Sudanese academic Fathi Abu Ammar told Al Jazeera the SAF bears primary responsibility for prolonged civilian suffering by blocking peace initiatives and refusing to establish safe corridors out of el-Obeid. He accused the army of using the city's residents as human shields to generate international sympathy, and argued the RSF is fighting to address legitimate historical grievances.
Sudanese journalist and political analyst Yousef Abdel Mannan, speaking to Al Jazeera from inside Sudan, rejected those claims, though the full text of his response was not available in the source material reviewed.
Foreign weapons continue to flow to both sides, analysts say, sustaining each faction's belief that an outright military victory remains within reach. That belief, more than any single battlefield development, has driven the failure of repeated international attempts to halt the fighting.
