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Kordofan is a three-state region between Sudan’s army-held centre and the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) west, including Darfur. Its position on routes between the opposing sides’ heartlands has made it a major battleground. El Obeid, a commercial and administrative hub in North Kordofan, is especially strategic: control of the city could open a route east toward Khartoum. The latest control picture described in the cited reporting is dated 1 October 2026, not a live battlefield update.
Why Kordofan matters in Sudan’s war
North, South and West Kordofan sit between central Sudan and Darfur. That location puts the region where the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and RSF areas of control meet, and makes its roads and towns important for movement between their respective strongholds. “East and west” is a useful shorthand for the corridor’s strategic role; reporting describes the linkage more specifically as one between the army-held centre and the RSF-controlled west.
The region is not a single front with one uniform pattern of control. Military developments vary by state and locality, and other armed actors are involved. In particular, the RSF has fought alongside the SPLM-N faction led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu. Incidents should not automatically be attributed to the SAF or RSF alone.
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There is no reliable live control picture in the cited reporting. Al Jazeera’s 1 October 2026 account says fighting intensified from late 2025 and that the SAF had pushed the RSF out of much of North Kordofan in the months before publication. It describes the RSF as retaining parts of Kordofan and South Kordofan as contested. These are dated assessments, not confirmation of control on 3 October 2026 or a claim that front lines are fixed.
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Earlier, ACLED’s 10 April 2026 analysis described Kordofan as the main SAF–RSF battleground. It reported that the RSF took Babanusa on 1 December 2025 alongside the SPLM-N al-Hilu faction, giving the RSF control of West Kordofan at that point. ACLED also said the SAF broke sieges on Kadugli and Dilling in early February 2026. The later October account is the more recent of these two descriptions, but it too is time-bounded.
Why El Obeid is a strategic prize
El Obeid is the principal city in Sheikan locality, North Kordofan. Al Jazeera describes it as a commercial and administrative hub and says control of the city could open an RSF route east toward Khartoum. That makes it important to the corridor’s military and logistical geography; it does not mean the city is certain to fall or that a route is currently open.
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Al Jazeera’s analysis of ACLED data for 15 April 2023 through 19 September 2026 records 497 attacks in Sheikan, 41% of North Kordofan’s total in that dataset. An attack count measures recorded incidents, not deaths, civilian casualties, or who controls a place.
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What the attack figures show—and what they do not
Al Jazeera’s 1 October 2026 analysis of ACLED data reports 2,876 attacks across North, South and West Kordofan from 15 April 2023 through 19 September 2026, about 19.7% of its Sudan total. The figure describes recorded attacks over that period; it is not a death toll or a count of civilian victims.
The same article’s state breakdown—1,205 attacks in North Kordofan, 789 in South Kordofan and 723 in West Kordofan—adds up to 2,717, not 2,876. The article also says a nearby total of 2,878 includes disputed Abyei. It does not explain the difference between the aggregate and the state figures, so those numbers should not be combined as if they reconcile. The regional aggregate is the clearest single figure the article supplies, with this discrepancy in view.
For the same period, Al Jazeera’s analysis assigns 52% of recorded attacks nationally to the SAF, 34.7% to the RSF and 13.3% to other actors. These are associations in an incident dataset, not a measure of responsibility for civilian harm.
How fighting has affected civilians
UNICEF’s situation report dated 31 January 2026 says more than 88,300 people had been displaced across the three Kordofan states since late October 2025, including 17,000 during January 2026. It also says Kordofan hosted more than one million internally displaced people. These figures describe the report’s period and should not be read as October 2026 totals.
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On 18 June 2026, the UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson said humanitarian organizations continued providing assistance in El Obeid and across Kordofan despite worsening security. The spokesperson urged the parties to protect civilians and infrastructure and allow safe, sustained humanitarian access. UNICEF’s January report also noted cholera, measles, dengue and Hepatitis E outbreaks across Sudan, with reported cases including North Kordofan; it described limited health services and disrupted vaccination as risks to disease transmission, not as a Kordofan-specific case count.
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ACLED reported on 10 April 2026 that it recorded 515 drone strikes causing at least 2,670 deaths in Sudan during 2025. That is a national figure and includes combatants and civilians; it is not a Kordofan-only toll. The cited reporting also describes attacks on civilian infrastructure and constraints on humanitarian access, but the national drone total cannot establish how many strikes or deaths occurred in Kordofan.
For additional geographic detail, a UK Home Office compilation published in September 2026 cites an earlier ACLED-data analysis reporting 1,003 drone strikes through 23 January 2026, including 122 in North Kordofan, 90 in West Kordofan and 65 in South Kordofan. These are figures from the earlier analysis cited by the Home Office, not new Home Office measurements, and they cover a different period from ACLED’s 2025 national total.
How to read changing reports about the front
- Check the publication date. A description of control or siege conditions is an assessment from that date, not a current map.
- Check the place and scope. Sudan-wide totals, three-state regional totals, and locality counts answer different questions.
- Check what is being counted. Attacks, drone strikes, deaths, displacement and territorial control are distinct measures.
- Keep attribution specific. The SAF, RSF and other armed actors operate in the conflict; an incident total does not by itself establish responsibility for civilian harm.
Taken together, the dated reporting establishes why Kordofan has become a major battleground: it lies between opposing areas of control, contains strategically important hubs such as El Obeid, and has endured sustained fighting alongside serious displacement and access constraints. It does not establish a live front line or an October 2026 displacement or casualty total.
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