Sudan Nashra: Rising civilian toll, infrastructure damage as RSF, military trade drone strikes | Military reinforces eastern border, braces for RSF-SPLM-N assault from Ethiopia | Major ground assaults in Kordofan, territorial control shifts | ‘Administrative crises’ may lead to dismissals in prime minister’s office, govt sources say

On January 1, Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair and Sudanese Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan delivered a state broadcast from the Presidential Palace in Khartoum to mark the 70th anniversary of Sudan’s independence, declaring that the “door of national reconciliation” remains open for those who sided with the Rapid Support Forces.

Beyond the palace’s walls, ground battles across Kordofan were proceeding at pace as the chairman spoke. Two military offensives rolled out overnight, retaking ground in places and losing in others, in what a military source described as part of a strategy of attrition rather than holding territory.

Simultaneously, the RSF and its allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu pushed back in South Kordofan, capturing territory in a bid to sever the road between the besieged cities of Kadugli and Dalang.

Overhead, a parallel drone war continues to unfold, with both sides launching aerial campaigns deep into territory held by their rival.

Following a months-long pattern, RSF drones struck power and service infrastructure across northern Sudan, White Nile and Kordofan, plunging Obeid into a blackout and stirring public anxiety in White Nile State.

In Nyala, the seat of the RSF’s parallel government in South Darfur, military drones pummeled the airport and surrounding areas over three days, clouding the skyline with smoke. The military’s drone campaign extended to North Darfur and Central Darfur, killing senior RSF figures.

Each side accused the other of hitting civilian sites; each rejected the claim. Sources from both sides reported dozens of civilian deaths in North Darfur and South Kordofan.

Beyond the relentless battles in the west, the military is fortifying its eastern frontier in anticipation of an RSF-SPLM-N assault from across the Ethiopian border. Troops and military equipment have been dispatched to Blue Nile State, while recruitment camps have been set up in Gadarif, following intelligence that the two allies have established camps across the border to train and arm thousands of fighters, a senior military officer told Mada Masr.

The ever-widening fronts are compounding the pressure on the already-faltering executive branch, which continues to struggle with overlapping security, economic and humanitarian challenges. These pressures, a former government advisor told Mada Masr, have contributed to disputes over decision-making authority.

Amid what two government sources described as “administrative crises and coordination failures,” Prime Minister Kamel Idris is expected to reshuffle his office’s team, they said.

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Military drones strike RSF-held areas across Darfur

As Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair Abdel Fattah al-Burhan delivered his address marking the 70th anniversary of Sudan’s independence on January 1, military drones were carrying out strikes deep into RSF-held territory.

According to a field source in the military’s command and control room overseeing Kordofan operations, the drones tracked and targeted a convoy in Central Darfur State on the Nyala-Zalingei route.

The source said the military detected significant movement by several RSF armored vehicles, which the central command suspected might include RSF deputy commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo, along with other senior commanders, making it a high-priority target.

The drones destroyed all vehicles in the convoy, the source said.

A military source told Mada Masr that Hamed Abu Bakr, the first security advisor to RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, was killed in the attack, along with several field commanders. Abdel Rahim Dagalo, however, was not in the convoy. Both he and Hemedti remain top priorities for the military, which the source said is actively gathering field intelligence with the aim of striking them.

In Nyala, South Darfur — where the RSF-led Tasis alliance has established the headquarters of its parallel government — the military launched a three-day assault on Nyala International Airport and its surroundings, according to local, government and RSF sources who spoke to Mada Masr.

The military struck the airport’s main runway on Thursday, followed by additional airstrikes over the next two days targeting areas adjacent to the airport as well as ammunition depots, a government source in Nyala’s civilian administration said. The attacks triggered repeated explosions and sent thick plumes of smoke billowing over the city.

An RSF source said that the airstrikes hit civilian sites, stressing there was no military presence in the areas targeted.

A second local source in Nyala, however, said that the RSF had imposed a security cordon around the airport and several locations within the city, though they added that military attacks frequently result in civilian casualties.

Thirty civilians were killed in a military drone strike in North Darfur’s Zurug area on Friday, according to a medical source in the RSF’s medical sector, who accused the military of deliberately targeting civilian sites.

A military source in the Air Force denied the claim, accusing the RSF instead of attempting to portray fighters and mercenaries targeted by the military as civilians, adding that all targeted locations were either troop assembly points or military supply routes.

The RSF said in a statement on Saturday that 64 civilians were killed in the Zurug attack, with the area’s only hospital completely destroyed. The statement said the same drone struck the main market in the Ghurair area, killing dozens.

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RSF drone strikes target infrastructure across Kordofan, Northern, White Nile states

In parallel with the military’s drone strikes in Darfur, the RSF has stepped up its own aerial campaign in areas held by the military in what a security source in the General Intelligence Service described as a growing reliance on drones to target both military positions and civilian infrastructure.

In the early hours of Monday, ground-based air defense units of the 19th Infantry Division in the Northern State town of Merowe intercepted a swarm of RSF drones aimed at key sites in northern Sudan, according to a military source at the Merowe air base. The strategic drones, they said, were heading toward the military base and nearby Merowe Dam facilities before being shot down, with no casualties or material damage.

The attack, according to the source, is part of recurring attempts to strike energy and power facilities alongside military infrastructure in the north.

But drone strikes went beyond northern Sudan this week, extending to North Kordofan’s Obeid and White Nile’s Rabak and the vicinity of the Kenana airport, where civilian and service sites came under direct or indirect fire on Sunday, according to a military source in the General Staff.

A government source in White Nile State said the attacks triggered widespread alarm among residents, given the repeated targeting of sites essential to basic services.

The aerial campaign also targeted South Kordofan’s Kadugli and Dalang — under a dual siege by the RSF and its allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu for over two years — where dozens of civilians were killed over the past week in drone strikes, a military source in Kadugli’s 14th Infantry Division said.

In Obeid, three residents told Mada Masr that while military air-defense units shot down several drones on Sunday, some managed to strike the city’s main power station, sparking a fire and causing a complete blackout.

An engineering source at Obeid’s electricity authority said firefighting crews struggled to contain the fire amid deteriorating security conditions and a lack of technical resources.

The General Intelligence Service source warned that the expanding use of drones is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and threatening the stability of essential services in several cities, amid growing fears that the fighting could spread to new fronts in the coming period.

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Parallel ground clashes in Kordofan

As drones traded strikes overhead, ground battles flared across multiple fronts, producing rapid shifts in territorial control in North Kordofan and South Kordofan over the past several days.

Late on December 31, the military launched its largest ground offensive in North Kordofan since October, deploying more than 300 combat vehicles under the cover of strategic drone operations against RSF positions in Kazgil, a military source told Mada Masr. Within the first hours of January 1, military forces secured full control of the area and pushed onward toward Rayyash.

The source said the surprise offensive disrupted RSF defensive lines, allowing military forces to advance into the Hammadi area and pursue retreating RSF units toward the outskirts of Debeibat in South Kordofan. Dozens of RSF fighters were killed, with others wounded or captured, according to the source. Around 17 RSF combat vehicles were destroyed.

The RSF regrouped the following day, deploying additional forces in Debeibat before advancing once more toward Hammadi and Kazgil, the source said. Limited clashes then broke out on Monday but ended with the military repelling the renewed attack.

Kazgil and Rayyash have seen repeated back-and-forth fighting since July, with control shifting several times between the military and the RSF. The areas are considered strategically important for securing Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, and opening routes further south.

According to the military source, the military’s strategy in Kordofan has focused less on holding territory than on wearing down the RSF — targeting main units and severing supply lines through drone strikes and rapid assaults.

As fighting unfolded in Kazgil, the military opened a parallel front the same day with an assault on Habila in South Kordofan, according to a second military source. After more than six hours of clashes, the RSF repelled the attack, pushing military units back toward the Kartala area, the source said. RSF fighters later released video footage from Habila, asserting continued control.

December 31 also saw the RSF claim control of the Koweik area along the Kadugli-Dalang road, with the group stating that its forces had inflicted heavy losses on the military and seized vehicles, weapons and ammunition.

On Monday, military troops from Kadugli’s 14th Infantry Division engaged in clashes with RSF and SPLM-N (al-Hilu) forces in Koweik, a local official in Kadugli told Mada Masr. The official said the fighting marked the third such confrontation in the area this week, amid attempts by the two allies to cut the road and tighten the siege on the two cities.

The SPLM-N (al-Hilu) said its forces, operating in coordination with the RSF, seized the Bardab area and a nearby military garrison on Saturday, about 6 km north of Kadugli. The group claimed that the advance has granted its forces full control of the Kadugli-Dalang road.

As the military remains concerned about potential security breaches inside Kadugli by infiltrating SPLM-N (al-Hilu) fighters, according to the city’s 14th Infantry Division commander Major General Faisal Mokhtar al-Sayer, who told Mada Masr that the division is working to protect the city from a scenario similar to what had unfolded in Nuhud. The RSF had breached the West Kordofan city and ignited clashes from within, which Sayer said contributed to its fall in May.

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Build-up in Blue Nile, Gadarif as military braces for RSF assault from Ethiopia

The military sent in additional troops and military vehicles to Blue Nile State as a precautionary measure to counter any potential RSF assault from Ethiopian territory, a senior military officer told Mada Masr.

According to the officer, the General Intelligence Service and other intelligence units detected three camps set up across the border, where they said thousands of RSF and allied SPLM-N (al-Hilu) fighters are being trained, backed by combat vehicles and advanced weaponry.

Speaking in Turkey last week, Burhan warned what he described as “countries we consider friends” against assuming Sudan has been weakened by the war. “Sudan is stronger than ever before. Step back before making a mistake,” he said, in response to reports of RSF mobilization in Ethiopia.

The officer said that the 4th Infantry Division in Blue Nile has been reinforced with advanced combat-trained battalions, as well as a mobile force that arrived on Thursday from the military-allied Sudan Shield Forces, led by Abu Agla Keikel.

In neighboring Gadarif State, which also borders Ethiopia, acting governor Mohamed Ahmed Hassan instructed the state’s mobilization and popular resistance committee on Friday to immediately establish training camps and recruit fighters to secure the border with Ethiopia. On December 31, Gadarif also inducted a new batch of General Intelligence Service recruits.

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Govt sources says “administrative crises” may lead to dismissals in prime minister’s office

Amid public scrutiny over Prime Minister Kamel Idris’s health — following another episode this week — tensions have escalated within the premiership after “coordination failures” tied to the unofficial campaign his office had launched against members of his Cabinet in November.

Idris is seriously considering a reshuffle within his own office, currently headed by Colonel Nizar Abdallah, amid mounting friction with a number of officials in Port Sudan, two government sources told Mada Masr.

The sources said the prime minister may dismiss the director of his office along with several close advisors, including Badr Eddin al-Gaefry, in what they said was an effort to contain “administrative crises and coordination failures between the executive branch and the ministries.”

A Transitional Sovereignty Council source said Abdallah and Gaefry have been linked to several administrative disputes within the Cabinet, adding that any reshuffle is expected to begin within Idris’s own office.

Starting November, representatives from the premiership walked into ministries and intervened directly in ministerial affairs, a move former government officials previously described as an attempt by Idris to assert his authority before power centers solidify within the ministries. The campaign sparked widespread concern across the executive branch, with three sources in Idris’s office telling Mada Masr at the time that at least six ministers — and possibly as many as nine — were expected to be dismissed.

According to a former government advisor, these anticipated changes and the successive reactions unfolding within the executive branch come at a moment when uncertainty over the prime minister’s health and the government’s direction in the coming period remains a central concern for both state leadership and the Sudanese public. “This is especially the case as calls grow to strengthen coordination among executive institutions to ensure the continuity of state functions amid the years-long war,” the former advisor said.

On Sunday, Idris suffered a sudden health setback and was transferred to Port Sudan Doctors Hospital. A source in the prime minister’s office said Idris received treatment and was discharged later the same day, adding that executive work continued uninterrupted.

The episode marks the third health incident Idris has suffered since assuming office in May.

In September, he suffered a medical emergency during an official visit to Saudi Arabia, forcing him to cut his trip to Riyadh short and return to Port Sudan. He also experienced a health setback in Khartoum during the first Cabinet meeting, which was largely ceremonial, according to a former government source. After contracting malaria, Idris was unable to convene the official session and returned to Port Sudan.

A medical source in the government said Idris’s condition has been exacerbated by exhaustion and frequent travels.