Sudan official says army captures Bara, 3 other areas in North Kordofan

Adel Abdelrheem and Sahin Demir

Sudan’s Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minnawi said Saturday that the Sudanese army and allied forces had captured the town of Bara and three nearby areas in North Kordofan State following military operations against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In a statement posted on Facebook, Minnawi said the army, Joint Forces and Popular Resistance had taken control of Bara, Umm Garfa, Umm Sayala and Jabra Al-Sheikh.

“What has been achieved today is not the end of the battle, but the beginning of a new phase of decisive action,” he said.

Minnawi said the forces had inflicted heavy casualties and equipment losses on the RSF during what he described as “precise military operations” that broke the paramilitary group’s defenses.

Earlier Saturday, military sources told Anadolu that the Sudanese army and allied forces had seized full control of Umm Sayala near Bara after clashes with the RSF, inflicting what they described as heavy losses on the paramilitary group.

Videos circulated on social media showed soldiers announcing control of Umm Sayala alongside destroyed RSF military vehicles, although Anadolu could not independently verify the footage.

Neither the Sudanese army nor the RSF had issued an official statement on Minnawi’s claims or the reported territorial gains as of 1740 GMT.

The reported advances came a day after Sudanese authorities said the army had regained control of the Burbur area south of El-Obeid following an RSF attack that killed 15 civilians and wounded seven others.

North Kordofan has witnessed intensified fighting in recent months, while El-Obeid has come under repeated RSF drone attacks targeting the city’s main power station, fuel depots and other civilian sites.

Sudan has been engulfed in conflict between the army and the RSF since April 2023, a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 13 million, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to UN estimates.