2024 – Present · North Kordofan Theater
2024 – Present
El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan and the junction controlling the roads between Khartoum and Darfur, has endured siege-like conditions for more than eighteen months. Residents have faced relentless drone strikes, critical water shortages, and — as documented by UN monitors — summary executions, abductions, torture, and widespread conflict-related sexual violence. After losing Khartoum in March 2025, the RSF made Kordofan its principal theater, and El Obeid the prize that would reopen its route to the capital. The pressure eased in 2026: the army retook Bara, north of the city, in July and pushed the RSF out of much of North Kordofan by October, securing the roads into El Obeid. RSF drones continued to strike the city — a strike on a college killed a guard on September 9, 2026 — and the International Organization for Migration warned that the city, sheltering about 500,000 people, still faced the threat of a full-scale assault.
Commanders