PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Residents of the southern Sudanese city of El-Obeid have said they are living in fear as paramilitaries appear to prepare for an assault, with the army reporting shooting down a drone targeting the city on Saturday.
The North Kordofan state capital, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of the national capital Khartoum, is a regional hub and a strategic prize for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with Sudan's army since April 2023.
While the RSF announced Thursday it had accepted a truce proposal put forward by mediators, the UN subsequently said it saw "preparations for intensified hostilities", issuing a warning about the deteriorarting situation in the Kordofan region in particular.
"We are especially worried after what happened in El-Fasher," Soaad Ali, from El-Obeid's Karima neighbourhood, told AFP, referring to the RSF's capture of the last army stronghold in western Darfur after an 18-month siege.
That takeover was followed by reports of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and looting, triggering fears the conflict could spread into oil-rich Kordofan.
El-Obeid, which hosts an airport, sits on a key supply route linking Darfur and Khartoum.
Last month, the RSF captured Bara, north of El-Obeid, forcing more than 36,000 people to flee that town and four others in North Kordofan in less than a week, according to the UN.
The group said last week it had massed forces in Bara to retake El-Obeid, "advising civilians to steer clear of military targets".
"We are living in fear," said a resident of El-Obeid's Qubba neighbourhood, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
"Officials try to reassure us, but... after what happened in Bara, our fears are growing."
A military source -- speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief the media -- told AFP on Saturday that air defences "shot down a drone launched by the RSF militia towards" El-Obeid.
‘Lost their parents'
The fall of El-Fasher two weeks ago gave the RSF control of all five state capitals in the vast western region, in addition to parts of the south.
The army controls most of Sudan's north, east and centre, including Khartoum.
Since El-Fasher's fall, more than 80,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas, according to the UN.
The General Coordination for Displaced People and Refugees in Darfur, an NGO, said Saturday that more than 16,000 people had arrived in Tawila and were in dire need of food, water and medical care.
El-Fasher had a population of around 260,000 before the RSF takeover.
Little is known about the fate of thousands still trapped in the city, which has been largely cut off from communications.
Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Sudan, told AFP that many families arriving in Tawila came with "children who are not their own".
The children, she said, "have lost their parents on the way, either because they've... disappeared in a chaos, or they've been detained, or they've been killed".
Survivors have told AFP that women and men were separated on the way out of El-Fasher, and that hundreds of men were detained in nearby towns.
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Saturday visited displaced people from El-Fasher in Al-Dabba city, about 1,000 kilometres north.
The army-aligned government said that since the RSF siege on El-Fasher began in April 2024, more than 50,000 people had fled to Al-Dabba.
