Sudan war intensifies in Kordofan as RSF razes villages
Hundreds of civilians were killed by the RSF on Saturday and Sunday as its war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) intensifies in the strategically vital Kordofan region.
Images collected by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which has monitored the war in Sudan since it began in April 2023, show the smouldering ruins of the Shaq al-Noum, one of several villages in North Kordofan attacked by the RSF over the weekend.
The HRL identified smoke rising from several recently razed structures as well as disjoined areas of thermal scarring 'indicative of intentional arson attacks'. Also visible, it said, was a pattern consistent with vehicle tracks 'around buildings and throughout the community'.
More than 200 civilians are believed to have been killed, most of them burned alive in their homes or shot dead, in the attack on Shaq al-Noum, which began on 12 July.
The massacre is believed to be one of the deadliest to have taken place during the war in Sudan. Footage reportedly shot in Shaq al-Noum and cited by Sudan War Monitor showed structures ablaze and RSF troops running between houses. Shouts and gunfire could also be heard.
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The Emergency Lawyers human rights group said at least 38 others were killed in simultaneous massacres in the nearby villages of Fojah, Umm Nabag, Jakouh and Mishqah, while dozens were forcibly disappeared or detained.
Faheem, a man from one of these villages, told campaign group Avaaz that the RSF had arrived in his village, Fojah, in a convoy of around 30 vehicles.
'The vehicles surrounded the village, forced people to line up, and began detonating explosives in homes,' he said. 'Our houses are mostly made of straw, so fires broke out quickly.
'I saw my aunt's house burning. She's one of the oldest women in the village. I grabbed my children and we ran. We didn't hear from anyone else.'
The importance of Kordofan
Kholood Khair, a Sudanese analyst and founder of the Confluence Advisory think tank, told Middle East Eye that the intensification of 'back and forth' fighting across Kordofan was reminiscent of the beginning of the war, when the two sides were yet to settle into their respective power bases - the RSF in the western region of Darfur, the army in the central and eastern areas of the country.
The city of el-Obeid, a strategically vital point that sits close to roads that run to Darfur and to the capital Khartoum, is held by the army but was previously under an RSF siege. The paramilitaries are now shelling it again to try and wrest back control.
On 13 July, 46 civilians, including pregnant women and children, were killed in an RSF attack on the village of Hilat Hamid, close to the town of Bara, which has been under paramilitary control for most of the war.
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In West Kordofan, SAF air strikes killed at least 23 civilians from 10 to 14 July, and on 17 July at least 11 more civilians were killed in another strike in the Bara locality.
'Kordofan is now the strategic point,' Khair said. Key roads run through North Kordofan to el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur besieged by the RSF, and Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman, which have recently been retaken by the army.
With Sudan's rainy season at its worst between June and September, Khair said that both the RSF and the army are looking to make gains in Kordofan to mount offensives on el-Fasher or Omdurman when the dry weather comes in October and November.
Witnesses told MEE that drones are being used by both sides across Kordofan - as they are in other parts of Sudan.
The back and forth fighting comes as both sides await a diplomatic intervention from international actors - particularly the US administration of President Donald Trump.
'Both sides very much want to pursue a military push while they are putting in place all the necessary conditions for themselves ahead of any diplomatic mediation - particularly from the US,' Khair said.
Sudan's army-led government is being run from Port Sudan, on the Red Sea coast, while the RSF has set up a governing alliance in Nyala, South Darfur.
Humanitarian operations
The intensification of fighting across Kordofan has 'badly affected' the operations of aid agencies there, Shihab Mohamed Ali, a senior programme manager for Islamic Relief in Sudan, told MEE.
The charity runs 36 health centres in West Kordofan and 48 health centres in North Kordofan in collaboration with the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and Unicef.
Islamic Relief distributes food, water and cash to Sudanese civilians whose lives have been upended by the war, which has now forced over 12 million people to flee their homes.
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Two Islamic Relief offices in West Kordofan have been looted - one in August 2024, the other in May 2025, Ali said. In both cases, the looting took place in the midst of RSF invasions, though the charity cannot say for sure who was responsible.
'Most parts of West Kordofan are under RSF occupation and the conflict is continuous,' Ali said. 'In that state, Islamic Relief, Unicef and the WFP are trying to distribute aid.'
Ali said that away from Kordofan, 'the situation is improving. The local community has played a great role with the community kitchens, where they provide food for people,' referring to the kitchens run by Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, a network of mutual aid groups.
'They have managed to pass a difficult time,' Ali said, referring partly to the threatened withdrawal of US funding following the dismantling of USAID. 'But the situation is improving in different parts of the country.'
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