The battle for Kordofan: The corridor linking Sudan’s east and west

Fighting successful Sudan’s Kordofan portion has intensified since precocious 2025, turning it into 1 of the main battlegrounds successful the warfare betwixt the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), present successful its 4th year.

The immense region, which comprises North, West and South Kordofan states, lies wherever the 2 sides’ areas of power meet, betwixt the army-held cardinal portion and the RSF-controlled Darfur successful the West. In caller months, the SAF has pushed the RSF retired of overmuch of North Kordofan.

The conflict is progressively being fought from the air. Drone strikes connected towns successful North Kordofan are increasing much predominant and deadly, and civilian infrastructure has been deed crossed the region.

Since the warfare began successful April 2023, 1 successful 5 recorded attacks successful Sudan has taken spot successful Kordofan.

Al Jazeera maps wherever the warring is concentrated successful Kordofan and crossed Sudan, and the displacement that has followed.

Who controls what connected the ground?

Sudan is broadly divided betwixt the 2 sides. The SAF controls the capital, Khartoum, and astir of the north, eastbound and centre, portion the RSF controls the west, including astir each of Darfur and parts of Kordofan. Smaller equipped groups, including the RSF-allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), clasp pockets of territory successful the south.

The service has the precocious manus successful the north, the RSF successful the west, and South Kordofan remains contested.

Where person astir attacks occurred?

According to an Al Jazeera investigation of information from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), an autarkic struggle monitor, determination were 14,648 recorded attacks betwixt the commencement of the warfare connected April 15, 2023, and September 19, 2026.

The 4 astir affected states include:

• Khartoum: The superior portion has seen the most, with 5,719 attacks, oregon 39 percent of the total, astir 3 times arsenic galore arsenic North Darfur, the second-highest
• North Darfur has witnessed 1,999 attacks (13.7 percent)
• Gezira state has seen 1,435 attacks (9.8 percent)
• Kordofan emerged arsenic a large centre for fighting. North, South and West Kordofan unneurotic recorded 2,876 attacks, oregon astir 19.7 percent of each recorded attacks, putting the portion down lone Khartoum erstwhile considered collectively.

Who has carried retired the astir attacks?

The SAF is associated with the largest stock of recorded attacks betwixt April 15, 2023 and September 19, 2026, accounting for conscionable implicit fractional (52 percent), compared with conscionable implicit a 3rd (34.7 percent) for the RSF and 13.3 percent for different actors.

Smoke billows aft drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted the bluish larboard successful the Red Sea metropolis of Port Sudan, Sudan, connected May 6, 2025 [AP Photo]

The equilibrium of attacks has shifted implicit time. The SAF was associated with much recorded attacks than the RSF successful the archetypal twelvemonth and a fractional of the war, earlier the RSF overtook it successful fig of attacks from precocious 2024 to mid-2025.

Since August 2025, the 2 sides’ monthly onslaught counts person been closer, with the SAF mostly signaling somewhat more, adjacent arsenic the wide fig of attacks has fallen sharply.

Where person attacks successful Kordofan occurred?

After the autumn of el-Fasher, the past large Darfur metropolis held by the service and its allies, successful October 2025, attraction shifted to Kordofan. The portion sits betwixt RSF-held Darfur and the army-held centre, northbound and east, forming a corridor betwixt the 2 sides’ heartlands.

Kordofan’s 3 states recorded 2,717 attacks: North Kordofan had 1,205 (44 percent), South Kordofan 789 and West Kordofan 723. Adding Abyei, a disputed oil-rich country connected the Sudan-South Sudan borderline that was historically portion of Kordofan, brings the full to 2,878.

Soldiers get astatine the Allafah market, successful an country precocious recaptured by Sudan’s service from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, successful the al-Kalalah district, southbound of Khartoum, Sudan, connected March 27, 2025 [AP Photo]

The attraction of attacks differs from authorities to state. In North Kordofan, Sheikan locality unsocial accounted for 497 attacks, oregon 41 percent of the state’s total. Sheikan is location to the authorities capital, el-Obeid, a commercialized and administrative hub linking cardinal Sudan with the west. Taking the metropolis would unfastened a way eastbound towards Khartoum for the RSF.

On September 9, a drone onslaught connected a assemblage successful el-Obeid tore the extortion disconnected the gathering and killed a information guard, the college’s dean, Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, told Reuters.

“As you tin see, the full module is destroyed and we consciousness that our dreams are destroyed, ⁠our aboriginal is destroyed,” Omnia Aboul Gassim, a pupil who had sat her exams astatine the el-Obeid assemblage conscionable 1 time earlier the attack, told Reuters.

In South Kordofan, Dilling locality was the main hotspot, with 242 attacks (31 percent), followed by Kadugli with 107 (14 percent) and Al Quoz with 94 (12 percent).

Attacks successful West Kordofan were dispersed much evenly crossed localities. Babnusa recorded the most, with 142, followed by En Nuhud (119), Al Khiwai (112) and Abu Zabad (111).

ACLED has recorded astatine slightest 12,314 reported fatalities successful Kordofan since April 2023.

The SAF was associated with 1,323 attacks (46 percent) crossed each 3 states successful Kordofan, compared with 920 (32 percent) for the RSF and 633 (22 percent) for different actors.

How galore radical are displaced?

About 8.6 cardinal radical stay internally displaced crossed Sudan, according to the latest United Nations figures, down from a highest of 11.6 cardinal successful January 2025 arsenic millions returned location to areas retaken by the army. New displacement continues successful Kordofan, Darfur and Blue Nile.

Darfur hosts the largest concentrations of internally displaced radical (IDPs), peculiarly South and North Darfur.

Returns person steadily accrued since 2025, reaching astir 5.1 cardinal by August 2026. Khartoum has seen a large instrumentality of displaced people, with astir 2.7 cardinal returnees.

A displaced pistillate from Dalanj braids her grandmother’s hairsbreadth astatine a displacement registration centre successful El Obeid, North Kordofan State, Sudan, connected January 15, 2026 [El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters]

Despite the decline, millions stay displaced much than 3 years into the war. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says the fig of radical recently displaced successful Kordofan since warring escalated successful October 2025 has risen 65 percent successful 4 months, from much than 132,000 successful February to astatine slightest 219,000 by precocious June.

The bureau has warned that el-Obeid, which shelters astir 500,000 people, including much than 83,000 displaced, faces a looming menace of a full-scale invasion.

“The informing signs are intolerable to ignore,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope earlier this month. “Across Sudan, families are fleeing violence, losing entree to water, energy and healthcare, and present facing the added load of destructive floods.”