Podcasts · Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Sudan Is on the Brink of Another Mass Atrocity

2 Jul 2026 · 29 min

Sudan's civil war may be entering another catastrophic phase. As I write this, a genocidal militia is massing outside a major city in Sudan, El Obeid. NGOs, the United Nations — and even Donald Trump's State Department — are warning of the potential of a major mass atrocity event should El Obeid fall. Yet, the attack appears imminent.

In this episode of Global Dispatches, I speak with Mutasim Ali, Legal Advisor at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, about the looming threat of mass atrocities in El Obeid, Sudan, as the Rapid Support Forces, the RSF, surround and besiege the city.

Sudan's civil war has produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, and yet the international response has fallen far short of the scale of the emergency.

Mutasim Ali discusses the worsening conflict, the risk of mass atrocities, and why global expressions of concern have not translated into meaningful action. We discuss the dynamics driving the war, the international actors shaping the conflict, and why Sudan has struggled to command the sustained attention it urgently deserves.

Support the show with a paid subscription: https://www.globaldispatches.org/

Links in the notes 1

• https://www.globaldispatches.org/

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)