RSF targets Sudan's Kordofan city with by drones

The city of El-Obeid in Sudan's Kordofan region, largely encircled by paramilitary forces, was targeted by drone attacks on Friday that  hit multiple government-linked facilities, several witnesses told AFP.

The drone strikes, which began early in the morning and lasted two hours, hit a military base, a police headquarters, the regional parliament and the premises of a telecoms company, witnesses said.

A military source told AFP that the army's air defences had intercepted 20 aerial targets. The paramilitaries had no immediate comment on the reports.

Since April 2023, Sudan's government army has been fighting its former allies in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

El-Obeid, located about 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of Khartoum, remains under army control after it managed to loosen a lengthy RSF siege last February.

The paramilitary force, however, has redoubled its efforts to take the city after forcing the army out of neighbouring Darfur last year, cutting off most access routes in and out.

El-Obeid lies along a strategic route linking Darfur and Khartoum

According to satellite images analysed by the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University earth fortifications have been thrown up, suggesting the city is bracing for a siege.

More than 88,000 have fled the Kordofan region since October.

The reported attack on El-Obeid came after the army announced on Monday that it had broken the siege of Dilling, a city in South Kordofan that the RSF had besieged for more than 19 months.

"This week, the security situation in the city of Dilling has deteriorated significantly," Farhan Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Friday.

"Local sources indicate that dozens of civilians have been killed," he added

Around 117,000 people—nearly half the population of Dilling—have fled the city, while many others remain trapped and cut off from aid, Haq warned.

Since the capture in October of El-Fasher, the army’s last stronghold in neighbouring Darfur, the paramilitaries have focused their offensives on Kordofan, a vast region rich in oil and gold.

Civilians have been driven from their homes and face an almost total collapse of basic services, the UN chief's spokesperson warned.

South Kordofan's capital Kadugli -- where some 500,000 residents are facing famine -- has been besieged by the RSF for more than a year and a half.

And since late October, more than 88,000 people have fled the Kordofan region, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Overall, the war has killed several tens of thousands of people, uprooted around 11 million, and triggered what the UN calls "the world’s worst humanitarian crisis".