Sudan (MNN) — Mercenaries stand poised in Sudan, ready and waiting to take El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state. Increased drone attacks from the Rapid Support Forces are making the deteriorating city progressively vulnerable.

Currently under army control, El Obeid is one of Sudan’s most important transportation and commercial hubs. John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan, calls it a strategic location.

El Obeid connects RSF-controlled Darfur to the central part of the country. “It has a road that leads directly to one of the three cities that make up Greater Khartoum,” John says.

“There’s Khartoum, which is an administrative capital, and then there’s Omdurman, which is a cultural hub, and then there’s Khartoum North.”

El Obeid connects RSF-controlled Darfur to central Sudan.
(AI photo generated by Chat GPT)

Thousands of Sudanese displaced by violence elsewhere have fled to Kordofan state and El Obeid for refuge. Now, many analysts fear El Obeid will soon become the next El Fasher.

“This is a very serious, serious situation,” John says.

“The UN, the EU, the United States, the ICC – they all see this looming genocide and are calling on these two sides to not do that.”

Sudan has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023, as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battle for control of the country. The conflict has displaced millions, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

El Obeid: the next El Fasher?

Sudan’s war has been marked by widespread atrocities, including ethnic massacres in Darfur, while fighting continues with no end in sight. Last year, reports of horrific RSF violence in El Fasher kept Sudan in the headlines for weeks.

“The genocide and the massacre were greater than we could ever imagine; 150,000 people ultimately were killed,” John says.

Many Sudanese died in graphic ways. “You have to take El Fasher as an example of how the RSF behaves and what they’re really after,” John says.

Along with gaining a strategic advantage in the war to control all of Sudan, “They are always looking for opportunities to dominate and to eliminate any opposition from Black African tribes.”

Yet hope remains. Survivors are turning to Jesus as they hear the Gospel.

(Representative AI photo created with ChatGPT)

“In the midst of this horrific war, Satan’s goal is to destroy souls, not just bodies. It is here that the power of the Gospel of Christ brings life to human hearts and with that life comes hope and strength to endure,” John says.

“We are seeing that in the desperation of this indescribable suffering, the simple truth of Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power it has always had, and souls are made alive and whole.”

You can support Sudanese church planters through John’s organization. We cannot name his group for security reasons.

“As Sudanese are fleeing across the border into South Sudan, our ministry has a center in Yida, South Sudan, just below Kordofan and El Obeid,” John says.

“In Yida, we have teams translating the Bible into languages of Kordofan, but we also will be holding our third Medical Clinic ministry—serving as many of those fleeing Kordofan as we can with medicine, trauma healing, and the proclamation of the Gospel.”

 

*Pseudonym

 

Header image is an AI photo generated by Chat GPT.