Thousands of displaced families in Sudan's strategic city of El-Obeid are facing worsening humanitarian conditions as fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues. Drone strikes have damaged fuel supplies, power infrastructure and key transport routes, leaving hospitals struggling to keep life-saving equipment running and civilians without essential services.
Who Pays for the War
Amna is among the people left to absorb the damage. She fled after her husband was killed during the war, and she described what that means in plain terms: "My husband was killed while I was four months pregnant, killed in this war. We have been suffering since the day we arrived. We don't have anything. I don't have a bed, I don't have a pan, I don't have a bucket. I don't have any food."
That’s the human cost of a conflict run through armed hierarchy. Families who had no say in the fighting are the ones left without food, shelter or basic household items, while the machinery of war keeps grinding through neighborhoods, roads and supply lines.
At El-Obeid Teaching Hospital, the pressure lands on doctors and patients alike. Dr. Muzammil Ahmed al-Safi, Director General, El-Obeid Teaching Hospital, said, "Unfortunately, only 10 minutes the generator was off because the fuel is depleted... But as you know, now the emergency room is functioning as normal."
The hospital is battling frequent power cuts as diesel shortages threaten emergency care, maternity services and incubators for premature babies. When fuel runs out, the whole setup teeters. Not the generals. Not the commanders. The people in the beds.
What the Armed Powers Are Doing
The war began in April 2023. It has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced around 13 million and pushed large parts of Sudan into famine. The United Nations says more than 30 million people now require humanitarian assistance as fighting intensifies around El-Obeid.
Those numbers are the ledger of a system that keeps choosing force over life. The army and the RSF keep fighting for ground, routes and leverage, and ordinary people keep paying in hunger, displacement and dead relatives.
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, say they have taken full control of Geissan, in the Blue Nile region, near the Ethiopian border. The Sudanese army disputes that claim, saying fighting is still underway and that it retains control of a key military base.
The dispute isn’t just about a town. Geissan’s strategic location gives the RSF greater influence along supply routes and near the Roseires Dam. That’s the prize: control over movement, access and pressure points that matter far more to armed institutions than to the people trying to survive them.
The fighting has displaced around 2,500 people, according to the IOM, with some civilians crossing into Ethiopia. The offensive also reportedly came during harvest season, with the RSF accused of looting crops and the central market.
That means the war doesn’t stop at the front line. It reaches into food, trade and the ability to eat.
Order, Claims and the Machinery Behind Them
Khartoum also accuses Ethiopia of facilitating military support from the UAE to the RSF, allegations Addis Ababa denies. Analysts say the new offensive could be aimed at stretching the army as it makes gains elsewhere in Sudan.
So the public gets the usual language of control, denial and counter-claim, while the consequences stay brutally simple: damaged infrastructure, displaced families, empty markets and hospitals forced to improvise around fuel shortages. The armed actors talk in terms of territory and advantage. The people in El-Obeid and Geissan live the collapse those calculations produce.
The war’s third year keeps widening the circle of ruin. The institutions with guns keep disputing who holds what. The people below them keep losing homes, harvests, power and time.