Sudan’s army lists eleven captured villages in North Kordofan; the RSF claims one back within a day

The SAF general command said on Thursday 17 September that it had seized 11 areas in North Kordofan after what it called fierce fighting, naming them in its statement: Kajmar, Sharshar, Al-Baniyah Al-Kurayniyah, Al-Qulay’at, Awlad Hazmah, Magwildat, Rayshan, Al-Qaa, Ghabat Al-Laqad, Al-Kukaiti and the area around Al-Mazrub. The spokesperson, who is not named in either the Sudan Tribune or Radio Tamazuj accounts, said the army had inflicted heavy losses, pursued retreating RSF fighters toward the Darfur border and was sweeping west of the state capital, El Obeid. Sudan Tribune’s Arabic desk describes the target zone as the West Bara and Sodari localities — the last RSF strongholds in the state — and reports that military sources placed the assault against positions bordering Sodari, Umm Badr and Hamrat al-Sheikh, with drone strikes beginning on Wednesday across North and West Kordofan to cut reinforcement lines arriving from the west. Sudan Tribune states in its own copy that it could not verify the battlefield account.

A day later the contradiction arrived. On Friday 18 September an RSF spokesman, also unnamed in the text, said in a press statement that his forces had won a large victory over the army and its allies at Abu Qa’oud, roughly 30 km west of El Obeid, seizing weapons and ammunition still being counted. Sudan Tribune notes the statement followed reports that the army had retaken both Abu Qa’oud and Umm Sumaima, about 60 km west of the city — Umm Sumaima sitting midway to El Nahud, the West Kordofan second city that Sudan Tribune describes as entirely RSF-held. The only civilian-side account came from a member of the Dar Hamar emergency room, unnamed, who told Sudan Tribune the network had confirmed large-scale RSF withdrawals from Hamrat al-Sheikh, Al-Mazrub and Sodari toward El Nahud, Ghubaysh and Wad Banda, and that RSF elements had completely looted the Al-Mazrub market and beaten civilians.

Assessment: The July file sets the discount rate. On 25 July the SAF and allied forces announced the recapture of Bara, Al-Baraka, Um Sayala, Um Qurfa and Jabrat Al-Sheikh, with Joint Force spokesman Mutawakil Ali Wakeel confirming all five by name and officials counting 73 destroyed vehicles; two days later Asharq Al-Awsat reported field sources saying the RSF had retaken Um Sayala and Jabra al-Sheikh and that the army had redeployed to Bara. A Kordofan locality list has roughly a two-day half-life. What is worth watching is not the eleven names but whether Umm Badr, Sodari and Hamrat al-Sheikh reappear in RSF statements by Monday, and whether Umm Sumaima holds — because that is the road to El Nahud, and an assault on a city is a different order of operation from clearing villages.