A highway running through El Obeid links Darfur in west Sudan to the east, making it a strategically significant battleground. A camp for displaced persons in El Obeid, Sudan, in January. The crisis has forced around 14 million people from their homes. Credit: El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters The U.S. State Department has warned that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces are massing near the city of El Obeid and that “mass atrocities” against civilians could occur if the city falls to the para