Sudan’s army says it took Al-Khuwai, its first town in West Kordofan, as wires split on the detail

The Sudanese Armed Forces and the allied Joint Force said on Friday 13 November that they had taken Al-Khuwai (also rendered Al-Khuway and Al-Khawi) in West Kordofan, after first seizing Serif Ankoush, about 20km west of the town, on the road running towards En Nahud. Sudan Tribune, citing military sources in two pieces, described Al-Khuwai as the army’s first locality captured in West Kordofan state and the operation as part of a push west and southwest of El Obeid, the North Kordofan capital; its sources call En Nahud, the state’s second city, the RSF’s main regional stronghold. Radio Tamazuj reported the army and its allies “said” they had recaptured the town, noting it sits on road networks linking North and West Kordofan to parts of Darfur and that the RSF seized it in May 2025.

The sourcing does not all point the same way. Anadolu Agency, also citing military sources, framed the day’s gains as areas seized near RSF-held Al-Khuway — that is, approaches rather than the town. Liveuamap logged the claim citing the Sudanese Resistance Committees, a civilian network rather than a neutral monitor. No RSF or Tasis statement on Al-Khuwai surfaced. Separately on Friday, the army said its air defences downed a long-range drone over the Dandaro area of Blue Nile and that it had crossed from Ethiopia; Anadolu records that the military did not identify the operator or the mission. The army made a similar claim about a “strategic” drone on 3 November, and Sudan has lodged complaints against Ethiopia with the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council.

Assessment: Treat Friday as an announcement, not an event. Every version of the Al-Khuwai claim runs through SAF-side channels, and the gap between Sudan Tribune’s “city taken” and Anadolu’s “near RSF-held Al-Khuway” is the kind of divergence that usually resolves days later, sometimes downwards. The geography is the part worth holding onto regardless: this axis runs towards En Nahud and onwards to Darfur, which is why both sides will keep narrating it. The Ethiopia attribution is a separate exercise. Blaming cross-border launch sites converts a drone war with no confirmed operator into a state-to-state grievance Khartoum can take to the Security Council — useful at precisely the moment the Council is deciding what to do about the arms embargo.