UN rights chief warns of possible atrocities near Sudan's el-Obeid
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk declared a red alert over potential atrocity crimes around the central Sudanese city of el-Obeid, urging global leaders to act as civilians face worsening conditions.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday that signs of mass atrocities are emerging around el-Obeid, a strategic city in central Sudan, and called the situation a “red alert” that should reach heads of state worldwide. > “This is not a drill. It is a red alert that needs to land on the desks of heads of state and government around the world,” he said, adding that leaders’ phones “should be running hot” with ideas to prevent further crimes in el-Obeid and elsewhere in Kordofan.
Türk warned that civilians have endured siege-like conditions for 18 months, subjected to relentless drone strikes as Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) contest control of the area. The council’s 47 member states are reviewing a draft resolution, introduced by Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway, which condemns the escalating RSF violence, calls for increased financial and logistical aid to nations hosting Sudanese refugees, and denounces external interference in the war.
The conflict, now in its fourth year, began in April 2023 and has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced roughly 13 million and driven large parts of the country toward famine, with over 30 million needing humanitarian assistance. After a brief breakthrough in February 2025 that ended a year-long siege of el-Obeid, the RSF has launched several offensives to re-impose the blockade. Recent attacks on infrastructure have left the half-million-strong city’s residents with limited food, fuel, water, health services and transport, according to the U.N. office.