The oil-rich Kordofin region of Sudan has become the main frontline in the war between the army and its rival paramilitary forces as both sides try to gain accustomed to the conflict that destroyed more than two years of African countries.
The attacks that killed hundreds of civilians earlier this month shifted attention to fighting in this part of the country.
“The people who control Kodovan effectively control the country’s oil supply and the majority of Sudan,” Amir Amin, an analyst at the OASIS policy consulting firm, told the BBC.
The region is also crucial to the inland Sudan’s inland, as its oil flows through Kordofan’s pipeline before exporting. Therefore, it has a vested interest in the stability of Kodovan.
However, fighting in the region (composed of three states with a population of nearly 8 million) has intensified since June, when the army resumed substantial growth in three months, regained territory of the Rapid Support Force (RSF), regaining the capital, Khartoum and nearby Gezira states, and its neighboring Gezira states, Gezira states, agricultural Hub of Sudan Hub of Sudan.
Most of the capital Khartoum (now in the hands of the army) lay in the ruins after months of fighting [Avaaz via Getty Images]
Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan will fly to Khartoum’s main airport on June 20, his second visit to the city as his troops drove out of the RSF fighter jets in March.
General Burhan is still stationed in the Port of Sultan, which shows that he is still unconfident in returning to Khartoum permanently, and is now a burnt wreck.
The conflict claimed about 150,000 lives and forced about 12 million people from home – roughly the population of Tunisia or Belgium.
Shortly after the war, the RSF began to capture Khartoum in April 2023 after General Burhan and then commander of the paramilitary team, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, were greatly affected, which was “Hemedti”.
The RSF helped Burhan hold a coup in 2021 and defeated dissenters until General Dagaro boycotted his plan to bring paramilitary forces into the army, and they opened up to each other.
Alan Boswell, an analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank, told the BBC that the army now wants to defeat the RSF in Kordofan so that it can push westward towards Darfur, the birthplace of the paramilitary organization.
On the other hand, the RSF hopes to capture Kordofan because it will bring “new momentum” to it and put it “within a surprising distance in central Sudan, including the capital.”
Dr. Suliman Baldo, director of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker Think Tank, told the BBC that he doubts whether the military can break through Kordofan’s RSF defense line.
He said most of the RSF fighters came from large mountain groups in Western Kodovian, which bordered Darfur, and “so they will work to protect their communities.”
He said air strikes by West Kordofan’s army, including its capital El-Fula and Abu Zabad towns, also put locals in par with locals, adding that it was a “collective punishment for the response policy to so-called RSF social doping.”
The Army still controls oil fields in the area, but the RSF threatens to extend the war to Heglig, which produces oil in South Kordofan near the border with South Sudan, if the air bombing does not stop.
“If the Army’s aviation returns again and is in the West Colossoft bomb citizens, we will strike and shut down Heglig’s oil and kill the engineers,” Youssef Awadallah Aliyan, head of the RSF civilian government in the state, smelled the Sudan Tribune News Enspect of the Sudan Tribune on the Market Market that visited Elstrikes in-fullla.
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said strikes against El-Fula and Abu Zabad, including strikes on a school sheltered family, reportedly killed more than 20 people.
Ocha condemned the attack, saying civilians and civilian buildings, including schools, houses and shelters, should be “forever targeted” and warring groups should uphold international humanitarian law.
The RSF is also accused of targeting civilians.
The United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) said that more than 450 civilians, including 24 boys, 11 girls and 2 pregnant women, were reportedly killed in the Bara area of North Kordofan and in the villages of Shag Alnom and Hilat Hamid.
“These attacks are anger,” the agency said, adding that “they represent a terrible escalation of violence” and “complete disregard for human life.”
During the war, millions fled their homes in Sudan, and many ended up in camps in neighboring countries, such as the Central African Republic [AFP via Getty Images]
The U.S.-based Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory has been monitoring the conflict, saying the analysis of Shag’arnom satellite images was a “intentional arson attack.”
Emergency Lawyer Rights Group said many of the more than 200 victims were “burned or shot in their homes.”
There are reports that the RSF is mobilizing to attack El-Obeid, the capital of the Northern Codofan state, and there is growing concern that civilian deaths may worsen.
Umm Sumaima town has changed hands several times in recent weeks.
“This is the last defensive post of the Sudanese armed forces before El-Obeid,” Dr. Bardo said.
Controlling Umm Sumaima would allow the RSF to siege the army with the El-Obeid base, which the army hopes to break in to create new supply routes to re-train its soldiers in other areas of Cordofin, Amin said.
With the high bet, the battle of Kordofan (covering about 390,000 square kilometers) is expected to be long and lasting for a long time.
“Whether it will determine the debate between the victors of the war, but it is definitely an earthquake shift,” Amin said.
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