Fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated sharply across the central Kordofan region in recent weeks, as both sides battle for control of a strategic corridor that links the army’s territory in the east to the RSF’s stronghold in Darfur to the west, raising fears the war is settling into a long and bloody stalemate rather than moving toward any resolution.

Kordofan, split into three states, has become one of the deadliest fronts of Sudan’s civil war since fighting erupted between the army and the RSF in April 2023. According to data cited by Al Jazeera, the region has recorded 2,876 attacks since the war began, or nearly one in five of all documented incidents nationwide, and at least 12,314 people have been killed there. North Kordofan alone accounts for 1,205 of those attacks, with the besieged state capital, El-Obeid, and its surrounding Sheikan locality bearing the brunt — 497 recorded attacks, or 41 percent of the state’s total.

The toll on civilians has been severe. A September 9 drone strike on a college in El-Obeid killed the institution’s dean and a security guard, according to Al Jazeera. One student who survived the strike told Reuters, “the entire faculty is destroyed and we feel that our dreams are destroyed.” El-Obeid, a city of roughly 500,000 people that is already sheltering 83,000 displaced residents, has endured repeated bombardment as the RSF has tried to break the army’s hold on the city.

Ground fighting has continued south and west of El-Obeid through the summer. Sudan Tribune reported that on August 14, RSF fighters launched a dawn assault on army positions near Umm Arada and Hashaba Hills, roughly 25 kilometers southwest of the city, prompting hours of artillery and drone exchanges. Military sources said government forces “repelled two RSF assaults in the area, using artillery and drone strikes,” while the RSF claimed on social media it had “seized Umm Arada,” describing the push as a major operational advance. A day earlier, the army said it had turned back a larger RSF assault involving roughly 250 vehicles near Jabrat al-Sheikh, about 170 kilometers northeast of El-Obeid, along a key supply route known as the Exports Road. The RSF has pressed the offensive in an effort to recover ground it lost in late July, when the army captured several towns and secured a highway connecting the capital region to El-Obeid.

The fighting has deepened an already staggering displacement crisis. Sudan’s internally displaced population stands at 8.6 million people, down from a peak of 11.6 million but still among the largest in the world, and new displacement from Kordofan alone rose 65 percent between February and late June, according to figures reported by Al Jazeera.

With neither side able to decisively break the other’s grip on Kordofan, aid groups and regional observers warn the corridor could remain a grinding front line for months to come, prolonging a war that has already killed tens of thousands and uprooted millions across Sudan.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Sudan Tribune