‘Besieged by bombs and hunger’: Vatican newspaper shines spotlight on El-Obeid, Sudan

July 10, 2026

The Vatican newspaper drew attention to the dire situation of Sudanese civilians in and around El-Obeid, a strategic city in the nation’s civil war.

In “Assediati dalle bombe e dalla fame“ (Besieged by bombs and hunger), a prominent front-page article in the newspaper’s July 9 edition, Federico Piana wrote:

Look closely at this photo: some young children are trying to scrape food scraps with cups from a large pot that appears almost empty. They know that, in the end, they won’t get anything to eat, yet they try anyway: the stomach pain caused by hunger has overridden reason.

Welcome to the al-Rahmaniyah refugee camp, on the outskirts of the Sudanese city of El-Obeid. Anyone setting foot there for the first time feels as though they have entered a circle of hell: there, alongside those children, are 100,000 refugees who fled the violence of the war between the regular army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, a conflict that erupted back in 2023. Men, women, and children wander the camp all day, trying to secure the last remaining humanitarian aid or rummaging through piles of trash.

“In the al-Rahmaniyah refugee camp, as indeed throughout El-Obeid, it is not just food that is lacking; obtaining it has become an impossible dream,” Piana continued. “Water, electricity, and medicines are also in short supply. Basic necessities cannot reach the population, despite the efforts of humanitarian organizations, because trade routes have been cut off.”

As the Rapid Support Forces besiege the city, fears are mounting of the prospect of “mass killings, the abduction of women and girls, gang rapes, and the use of starvation as a weapon,” added Piana, who cited a new UN report.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Assediati dalle bombe e dalla fame (L'Osservatore Romano, 7/9/26)
• Sudan: Mass killings, abductions, and gang rape carried out in El Fasher constitute distinct markers of genocide, UN Fact-Finding Mission says as it launches urgent inquiry into El Obeid (United Nations Human Rights Council, 7/8/26)