An attack on a funeral in the key city of el-Obeid in Sudan’s North Kordofan state has killed 40 people, according to the United Nations.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing local sources, said on Tuesday the attack in the state capital, which is still being held by the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), occurred without specifying when it took place or who was behind it.
Reports of the attack emerged as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) appeared poised to launch an offensive on the city as army troops gathered in a bid to repel them.
“The security situation in the Kordofan region continues to worsen,” said OCHA. “Once again, we call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for all parties to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law.”
Fighting in the oil-rich region has intensified, with thousands fleeing to el-Obeid last week after the RSF recaptured the city of Bara, some 60km (37 miles) north of the city, from the SAF.
In parallel, the RSF seized control of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, after the SAF’s withdrawal. More than 70,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas since the RSF’s takeover, according to the UN.
Witnesses and human rights groups have reported cases of “summary executions”, sexual violence and massacres of civilians.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale’s School of Public Health, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the RSF had “begun to dig mass graves and to collect bodies throughout the city”.
UN officials also warned this week that thousands of people are believed to be trapped in el-Fasher.
The ruinous civil war broke out in 2023, when a power struggle between the RSF and the SAF prompted fighting in the capital, Khartoum.
Since then, the RSF has taken control of more than a third of the country in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced 12 million, nearly a quarter of its population, becoming the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.
Sudan’s Defence Minister Hassan Kabroun said on Tuesday that SAF would press on with its fight against the RSF after the country’s Security and Defence Council met to discuss a proposal from the United States for a ceasefire.
