Sudan Nashra: Burhan’s Ankara talks cap December high-level diplomacy | Informal trade routes to Kordofan cut, driving shortages, price hikes | RSF campaign leaves hundreds of civilians killed, thousands displaced in North Darfur, fighting flares in North Kordofan

Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s visit to Ankara this week caps a tightly sequenced diplomatic push in December, following earlier stops in Riyadh and Cairo.

Within this circuit of regional alliances, Ankara provides Burhan with a platform for regional recognition and political room to maneuver outside the Arab arena, according to both a Sudanese former official and a diplomatic source.

The talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yielded expanded military cooperation and laid the groundwork for what the former official described as an open-ended framework that could enable direct logistical, training and security support. Security considerations, the sources said, have been the dominant theme across all of Burhan’s December visits.

The Burhan-Erdogan talks also included pledges of increased humanitarian support from Turkey. Yet at home, government measures have compounded civilian suffering. Since November, authorities have enforced a ban on the movement of goods — including foodstuffs — from Northern State along informal routes, exacerbating shortages across Kordofan and Darfur.

Although the ban was justified on security grounds to prevent unmonitored supplies from reaching the Rapid Support Forces, traders told Mada Masr that its consequences have fallen squarely on civilians and local markets, particularly in Kordofan.

As fighting in Kordofan intensified in recent months and official routes became unsafe, traders turned to historic desert trade routes to bring essential goods, including food and medicine, south from Northern State.

The ban has since driven prices up by around 70 percent and left some remote markets nearly empty, traders said. A source in a North Kordofan emergency room warned that if the restrictions persist, they could trigger further displacement and a surge in malnutrition.

The impact of the ban comes as violence escalates across both regions. In North Darfur, hundreds were killed and thousands displaced this week in attacks a medical source described as ethnically motivated, as RSF forces expanded westward. Fighting has also flared again in North Kordofan near the capital Obeid, with the military and the RSF trading competing claims over territorial and battlefield gains.

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Burhan in Ankara

Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair and military Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrived in Ankara on Thursday at the invitation of Erdogan.

The visit marks the latest step in a series of intensive diplomatic moves in December, which a senior TSC source said are aimed at repositioning Sudan’s military leadership on the regional stage.

The visit marks the latest step in a series of intensive diplomatic moves in December, which a senior TSC source said are aimed at repositioning Sudan’s military leadership on the regional stage.

The Burhan-Erdogan talks focused on the military situation in Sudan and strengthening Turkish-Sudanese cooperation in both defense and humanitarian fields, a diplomatic source at Sudan’s Foreign Ministry told Mada Masr.

According to the source, the visit yielded expanded military cooperation, particularly in defense manufacturing, alongside increased humanitarian assistance. Turkey, the source said, agreed to allow the Turkish Red Crescent to deploy staff to Sudan and to cooperate on post-war reconstruction efforts.

According to the Turkish presidency, Erdogan stated during the meeting that cooperation between Turkey and Sudan “further advanced across numerous areas, including trade and agriculture, defense industry and mining.” The Turkish president stressed the goal of achieving a ceasefire in Sudan and affirmed his country’s continued humanitarian support, according to the statement.

A former Sudanese Foreign Ministry official said the Ankara talks laid the groundwork for an open-ended framework of cooperation with multiple possible trajectories. Politically, Turkey offers Burhan a platform for regional recognition beyond the traditional Arab arena, while on a more practical level, the visit leaves the door open to direct logistical support and high-level security and training coordination.

The Ankara trip, the source said, is part of a diplomatic circuit Burhan has been working to close, with only a visit to Doha — a key economic backer of the Sudanese government — still pending.

Earlier this month, on December 15, Burhan traveled to Riyadh, where he met Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. That meeting closely followed a visit by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and was described by Sudanese and Eritrean sources at the time as part of a new regional axis in the making.

Just three days later, on December 18, Burhan headed to Cairo, where he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. During the visit, the Egyptian presidency publicly invoked the joint defense agreement with Sudan for the first time, reaffirming the traditional alliance between the two armies.

In this circle of regional alliances, the diplomatic source said, Riyadh serves as a gateway to political legitimacy and negotiation tracks, Cairo provides depth in terms of security and sovereignty and Ankara offers additional maneuvering space outside Arab polarizations, giving Burhan a balancing card. Security considerations, the source added, were at the top of the agenda in all of these visits.

A Sudanese media source close to the TSC said that the tightly sequenced diplomacy in December reflects a growing realization within Sudan’s military leadership that the continuation of the war — or the containment of its costs — now hinges on managing a complex web of regional relationships.

While the TSC source said that Ankara has provided sustained, broad-based support to Sudan throughout the war, particularly in security and defense, Turkish involvement has extended to the battlefield since the fall of Fasher to the RSF in late October. Four Egyptian officials previously told Mada Masr that Turkey coordinated operationally with Egypt, providing surveillance and intelligence assistance, as well as battlefield cooperation in North Darfur and Kordofan. One official said that Turkish drones conducted airstrikes on RSF supply routes from southeastern Libya with logistical support from Egyptian and Sudanese airbases.

During his stay in Ankara, Burhan also met with members of the Sudanese community at the Sudanese embassy, where he spoke about Sudan’s relations with international and regional blocs, stating that Khartoum maintains strategic and deeply rooted ties with China and Russia and is seeking to further develop them. Regarding the Quad, Burhan called for its expansion to include both Qatar and Turkey. He also reiterated that there would be no truce with the RSF.

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Informal trade routes to Kordofan cut, deepening shortages

Since late November, authorities have imposed a ban on the movement of goods — including fuel and basic foodstuffs — from Northern State to Darfur and Kordofan via informal routes, government sources and traders told Mada Masr.

A local government source said the measure was introduced on security grounds, with the aim of preventing supplies from reaching areas under RSF control.

A trader in Dabba City, however, said that the decision “made no distinction between military use and civilian needs,” with its effect falling squarely on civilians and local markets.

The consequences have been particularly severe in Kordofan, which has become heavily dependent on informal commercial routes from the Northern State since fighting intensified in the region and rendered official roads unsafe, according to a trader in Obeid’s main market. These, the source said, are the same desert routes communities turned to when the RFS seized roads linking Obeid to Khartoum and White Nile at the start of the war, historically used to move essentials such as flour, sugar, cooking oil, legumes and medicines. 

Once trucks were stopped at checkpoints and barred from crossing, markets began to experience clear shortages within days — shortages that were quickly reflected in sharp price hikes reaching up to 70 percent, the trader said.

By December, the price of a sack of sugar in several Kordofan markets reached around 250,000 Sudanese pounds (US$62.5). A sack of millet exceeded 120,000 pounds ($30), while a 25-kilogram sack of flour rose to about 110,000 pounds ($27.5) — levels far beyond the reach of most households amid collapsing incomes and the loss of livelihoods caused by the war, according to the trader.

The repercussions went beyond inflation to the near-total disappearance of some commodities in areas far from urban centers.

Three traders in such areas told Mada Masr that regular shipments of food and medicines have stopped altogether, forcing some markets to partially shut down and leaving civilians dependent on dwindling household stocks or nutritionally poor substitutes.

In South Kordofan’s Dalang, five residents said some families have resorted to eating wild plants in an attempt to stave off hunger.

A security source described the targeted routes as “smuggling roads,” arguing that the government continues to allow goods into Kordofan via official routes that it monitors and regulates. Authorities, the source said, have increased supplies to North Kordofan via the Obeid-Kosti road, framing the restrictions as a way to control prices and accusing traders of selling smuggled goods at "astronomical prices.”

The measures come on top of an already dire humanitarian situation. A government source in South Kordofan told Mada Masr that several humanitarian organizations in the region suspended their activities since April, significantly reducing the distribution of food and medical assistance at a time when needs were steadily rising.

According to UN estimates through November, large parts of Kordofan and Darfur are facing severe food insecurity, with hundreds of thousands living in conditions approaching famine, driven by fighting, access constraints and broken supply chains.

A member of an emergency room in North Kordofan, speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, condemned the use of food and trade as tools of pressure in wartime. The restrictions, they said, do not only affect active combat zones, but also civilians in towns and villages with no alternatives to traditional supply routes and lack the capacity to offset shortages through local production.

With the restrictions extending through the end of December, fears are growing of a surge in malnutrition, particularly among children and women, amid a weak humanitarian response and limited safe access, the source said. They warned that continued bans on the movement of goods and aid could trigger new waves of displacement within Kordofan and Darfur, further straining host communities already facing population pressure and near-collapsed services.

Internal displacement from Kordofan to other states continues, with thousands in December alone seeking shelter in states such as White Nile, Gadaref and Northern.

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Military, RSF trade claims, civilians come under fire in Kordofan, Darfur

As military and RSF sources dispute battlefield gains and trade blame over drone attacks along the Chadian border, this week’s fighting in Darfur and Kordofan exacted a heavy toll on civilians, leaving hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

In Darfur, a source in the military-allied joint force of armed movements said RSF units have carried out drone strikes and ground attacks on western North Darfur State since the start of the week. 

The attacks extended toward the Chadian border. A source in the Chadian town of Tina said drones launched from the Sudanese border struck a Chadian military camp, killing two soldiers.

The military blamed the RSF for the attack, accusing the group of using drones in border areas to “create tensions between Sudan and neighboring states.” But an RSF field source denied the accusation, saying the military was responsible.

Amid the continued expansion of RSF control in the western parts of North Darfur, its forces killed over 200 civilians in Umbro, Sarba and Abu Qumra this week, a source in the Sudan Doctors Network told Mada Masr. The source described the attacks as ethnically targeted, involving sequential assaults on civilians inside their homes and the pursuit of residents as they attempted to flee.

The Abu Qumra area and surrounding villages had become places of refuge for residents fleeing the fall of Fasher since late October. A source in Darfur’s regional government accused the RSF of attempting to carry out ethnically targeted massacres against the Zaghawa community, whose lands encompass these areas and whose members make up a large share of those displaced there after Fasher fell.

In the aftermath of the assaults, more than 7,000 people were displaced from areas such as Umbro and Karnoi, the source said.

In Kordofan, fighting intensified on Saturday around Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, with the military launching operations along the city’s northern axes.

An RSF field source claimed its forces had broken through military defensive lines about five kilometers north of the city. This was denied by a government source in Obeid, who said the military maintains control of the northern fronts and is conducting what they described as “qualitative” operations with allied forces in strategically important areas.

A military source in Obeid said their forces took control of the strategic Dakong area on Sunday, about 15 kilometers north of Obeid, after heavy fighting.

The RSF rejected the claim. A second RSF field source accused the military of waging a “media war” to obscure RSF advances and gains across Kordofan and Darfur. The source added that RSF fighters shot down a Turkish-made Bayraktar drone on Saturday in the Borno area, which they seized last week.

Military forces continue to clash with RSF-allied units near Dakong and its outskirts, a key zone for securing areas north of Obeid, with battles involving sustained drone strikes and ground assaults, the Obeid government source said.

In South Kordofan, the military carried out a drone strike on Friday targeting the Biyam Jald area, which is controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) allied with the RSF, three residents of Dalang told Mada Masr.

Clashes also continued around the state capital Kadugli on the same day, prompting at least 25 families to flee to nearby rural areas amid fears of further escalation, a resident of the city said.

On Tuesday, SPLM-N announced that its forces, operating alongside the RSF, took control of military garrisons in the Taqato, Balf and Hagar Daliba areas along the Kadugli-Dalang road, describing the advance as a significant development that paves the way for the capture of Kadugli.

SPLM-N blocking the main highway connecting Kadugli and Dalang in South Kordofan, after seizing the strategic Taqato junction, December 30. Courtesy of the Sudan Tribune on X