Civilians in Sudan's El Obeid 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), UN-appointed independent investigators said on Wednesday.
They warned that the war is becoming more geographically extensive, technologically sophisticated and increasingly dangerous for civilians.
"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 Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan , during a press briefing.
"These practices must stop immediately."
The Mission released its new report , Sudan's Unrelenting War: Civilian Devastation and Deepening Insecurity in El Obeid, after presenting its September findings on external support for the warring parties to the General Assembly's Third Committee.
Drones and detention
The report 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.
Only around 30 per cent of hospitals in the city remained operational after attacks, one expert told the Mission.
The brutal conflict between the former allies turned rival militaries, first erupted in April 2023.
At the same time, SAF-affiliated security actors have intensified surveillance and targeted people engaged in humanitarian, human rights and peace work.
El Obeid Central Prison reportedly holds some 2,000 people against a capacity of about 450, with one former detainee describing up to 40 people confined in a cell measuring roughly 2.5 by 2 metres.
The mission is also investigating a drone attack on a market in Abyei on 19 October, reportedly by forces of the military government, which killed at least 80 people, as well as reported Egyptian airstrikes on gold mining sites near the Sudan-Egypt border that killed at least 72 miners.
'Mass atrocity crimes'
Asked who was supplying weapons, mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman said investigators had found evidence that individuals and entities in Chad, Puntland in Somalia, southeastern Libya and the United Arab Emirates were involved in a transnational network supporting the RSF, though the UN Human Rights Council -appointed investigators had not "linked any of the neighbouring States."
He said October had seen the highest number of drone attacks on civilians since the conflict began, adding that States supplying weapons "cannot say that they are unaware".
Fellow expert Joy Ngozi Ezeilo reiterated the Mission's call to expand the UN arms embargo, currently limited to Darfur, to all of Sudan. "Sovereignty should not shield mass atrocity crimes, period," she said.
Marking one year since the RSF takeover of El Fasher, Ms. Ezeilo said accountability remained absent.
"The passage of time should not diminish attention to what has happened in El Fasher. On the contrary, it should remind us of the cost of impunity."
