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READ FULL STORYBy: Victoria Walker, Policy Analyst
Sudan is now in its fourth year of war, and from the outset, civilians have borne the greatest costs. Since hostilities erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, 2023, tens of thousands of people have been killed, while millions more have been forced from their homes. Access to food, water, shelter, healthcare, and other essential services has deteriorated, pushing already fragile systems past breaking point. As the conflict intensified, these pressures increasingly converged in Sudan’s Kordofan region, where escalating violence is driving displacement and placing renewed strain on already exhausted and overstretched communities.
El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, emerged as a destination of refuge for tens of thousands of displaced people, but the city itself—situated on a major supply corridor—has also come under attack by the RSF as it attempts to seize control. The increased use of drone strikes in El Obeid has further exposed civilians to the consequences of the escalating hostilities. Displaced and host communities alike face the compounding impacts of displacement, disrupted services, restricted access to lifesaving necessities, and declining humanitarian aid.
The following Situation Update provides an overview of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sudan, particularly in El Obeid and the broader Kordofan region. It also examines the impact of intensified hostilities on civilians, including the increasing use of drone strikes and the displacement and humanitarian needs they are driving.
The Cost of Inaction
Sudan is experiencing the world’s largest displacement crisis, driven by massacres, famine, and the destruction of civilian life. Yet, despite the scale and severity of the crisis, it has been met with profound global inaction. The humanitarian response plan for Sudan is only slightly more than 40 percent funded, and despite calls for urgent action from civil society organizations, global leaders have yet to generate the political pressure needed to secure an immediate ceasefire or halt the flow of weapons fueling the conflict.
As the humanitarian crisis in Sudan remains sidelined from sustained international attention and action, atrocities continue with devastating consequences for civilians. The scale and severity of the crisis are reflected in its staggering human toll:
- As of August 2026, over 11.3 million people were forcibly displaced—6,490,949 internally displaced people (IDPs) and 4,585,550 people who fled across international borders.
- Over half of those displaced in Sudan are children.
- At least 59,000 people have been killed in the conflict, with actual figures likely to be far higher due to limited access for verification.
- By April 2026, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sudan recorded over 11,000 missing persons cases, representing an increase of more than 40 percent in the past year alone.
- In June 2026, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) detailed the “widespread and brutal use of sexual violence in Sudan” as a weapon of war, including rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery, mostly targeting women and girls.
- About 19.5 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger, including risk of famine, and 33.7 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
The scale of this crisis is not only measured in these statistics, but in the systematic dismantling of the conditions necessary for civilian life. Families are being separated, communities are being emptied, and survivors are left to navigate hunger, violence, and the loss of livelihoods with little protection or recourse.
These impacts are unfolding in individual communities across Sudan, making civilian life increasingly untenable. This is acutely evident in El Obeid.
A City Under Fire
El Obeid in North Kordofan is home to over 600,000 people, including more than 83,000 IDPs. As reported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the city’s capacity to support those seeking safety is waning. The Kordofan region, described by IOM as “one of Sudan’s principal displacement epicenters,” has received a large influx of displaced families as over 100 displacement-triggering incidents occurred in less than nine months. On August 17, 2026, IOM reported that over 200,000 people had been newly displaced across the Kordofan region since late 2025.
Since June 2026, a sharp escalation in attacks on El Obeid has placed civilians in an even more dire situation. On June 18, 2026, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, gave a “stark warning to the world of an impending human rights disaster and worsening humanitarian situation” in El Obeid, noting that the city and its people had been “strangled by siege-like conditions for more than 18 months,” and now were facing intensified drone strikes by the RSF.
Drone strikes in Sudan have repeatedly struck civilian areas and critical infrastructure, leaving civilians with little warning and few places to seek safety. Drones have struck schools, funerals, markets, hospitals, displacement sites, aid convoys, and even homes while people were sleeping. In the first four months of 2026 alone, drone strikes killed at least 880 civilians in Sudan. Drone attacks also accounted for 60 percent of child casualties in Sudan in the first six months of 2026. On August 3, 2026, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that drone strikes put humanitarian operations in Sudan at risk and hampered humanitarians’ ability to reach people who desperately need help.
The use of drones in El Obeid has terrorized civilians and damaged or destroyed critical civilian infrastructure. In an August 24 address to the UN Security Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher stated that in El Obeid, “drones are striking markets, fuel stations, and vital power and water infrastructure,” leaving people without food, power, and water. Without electricity, water pumps cannot operate, communication lines are down, and hospitals cannot provide lifesaving procedures.
The consequences have had an especially profound impact on already displaced populations. As reported by international and non-governmental organizations working in Sudan, recent disruptions to water systems in El Obeid due to drone strikes heighten the risk of disease outbreaks, like cholera, and deepen humanitarian need for already vulnerable populations.
At displacement sites in El Obeid, severe water shortages have resulted in women and children waiting in line for hours in stifling heat to collect water. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders reported that in an El Obeid displacement camp, families were surviving on just over one liter of water per person per day. In July 2026, UN Women warned that women and girls in El Obeid were left with “no safe window” to collect water due to drone attacks during the day, and sexual violence at night.
As the scale of the crisis in El Obeid accelerates, displacement continues to grow. New findings from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab showed an increase of around 344 new tent structures at the Unified Internally Displaced Persons camp in El Obeid between July 19 and August 4, 2026. On August 14, 2026, Save the Children reported that 39,000 children fled to El Obeid over the first six months of 2026 seeking safety, but are now facing severe food and water shortages, and a lack of health and education services in the city. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) detailed that alongside immediate risk of death and injury, children living under “repeated bombardment and displacement” in Sudan are also experiencing psychosocial consequences such as fear, anxiety, and trauma.
