Sudan Nashra: RSF seizes Bara again | Fighting flares in North Darfur’s border towns, RSF secures gains, civilian casualties mount | Burhan meets military-aligned revolutionary forces in pursuit of political cover, sources say | Idris dismisses Cabinet officials, dissolves state institutions’ boards

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The Rapid Support Forces advanced on several fronts across Kordofan and North Darfur this week, gaining ground as violence continues to exact a heavy toll on civilians.

Just over ten days after the military retook Bara in North Kordofan, the RSF recaptured the city in a two-axis assault on Monday, backed by sustained drone strikes. A military source said the absence of effective air defenses left positions exposed, forcing troops to withdraw to the outskirts of Obeid.

In the aftermath, the Sudan Doctors Network said RSF fighters killed 12 civilians and injured several others in northern Bara after accusing them of links to the military.

In South Kordofan’s Dalang, RSF forces and their ally the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, launched a multi-axis ground attack after weeks of artillery and drone strikes. A source in the local forces said they backed the military in repelling the assault, though additional attacks appear imminent as reinforcements arrive from West Kordofan.

Along the Chadian border, in the Dar Zaghawa tribe territory, RSF fighters advanced into Karnoi in the early hours of Monday, establishing control in one of the last military-held areas in North Darfur.

Doctors Without Borders said 123 wounded people crossed into Chad for treatment on Monday, including 66 who arrived in critical condition and 17 who later died in the hospital.

Heavy fighting also struck the twin border towns of Tina. RSF forces briefly seized the Sudanese side on Tuesday before being driven back. The following day, a drone strike launched from Sudan hit a funeral gathering in the Chadian town, killing at least 15 people, a senior local official and military source told Agence France Presse, with the military source attributing the attack to the RSF.

Amid a grinding back-and-forth between the RSF and the military on the ground, Khartoum’s leadership is continuing to try to reshape the state’s political and executive order.

Under heightened scrutiny following the United States’ designation of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization last week, Transitional Sovereignty Council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been working to distance state institutions from visible Islamist influence.

According to a TSC source, Burhan has in recent weeks pursued a set of arrangements intended to rebuild a political base for the government while limiting the role of both Islamist networks and the entrenched political coalition, the Democratic Bloc.

As part of that effort, he met on Friday with political actors tied to the December 2018 revolution, most notably the National Current. A political analyst and former officials said Burhan is looking to engage currents that combine revolutionary legitimacy with alignment to the military, while opposing both Islamists and the RSF — a positioning that aligns with that of the National Current.

The meeting formed part of what a source familiar with its arrangements described as “preliminary, informal discussions” on the future of the political process, as Burhan looks to secure political cover to ease external pressure and bolster domestic legitimacy in any eventual settlement.

At the executive level, Prime Minister Kamel Idris issued a series of sweeping decisions on March 12 dismissing senior Cabinet officials and dissolving the boards of public bodies and state-owned companies.

A ministerial source said the reshuffle is part of the prime minister’s attempt to “recalibrate the center of administrative decision-making,” following a dispute last month between Idris and TSC member Ibrahim Gaber over who controls the file of the government’s return to Khartoum.

The measures targeting public bodies, the source added, are also tied to Burhan’s push to distance state institutions from Islamist figures.

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Burhan meets military-aligned revolutionary forces in pursuit of political cover, sources say

Transitional Sovereignty Council head and military Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met on Friday with a group of political actors linked to the December 2018 revolutionary movement, foremost among them the National Current.

The meeting, according to a political source familiar with its arrangements, formed part of “preliminary, informal discussions” on the future of the political process. No official statement was issued by the TSC clarifying its scope or outcomes.

A source close to Burhan and decision-making circles told Mada Masr that the talks fit within a broader effort by the military leadership to reorganize the political arena as the war drags on and international pressure builds for a negotiated track.

According to the source, the military establishment has come to recognize the “limits of managing the transitional phase through security measures alone,” pointing to a growing need for political cover that could both ease external pressure and bolster domestic legitimacy in any eventual settlement.

As scrutiny mounts over the role of Islamist networks within state structures, Burhan is seeking engagement with currents that combine revolutionary legitimacy with alignment to the military, while maintaining opposition to both Islamists and the RSF, former officials and political analyst Fouad Othman told Mada Masr. This positioning closely aligns with that of the National Current, whose approach Othman described as a pragmatic response to existing power dynamics — creating a convergence of interests between the two sides.

Burhan has been working in recent weeks toward a set of arrangements intended to rebuild the government’s political base while curbing Islamist presence, a source in the TSC said.

He has recently signaled the possibility of forming a legislative council drawn from segments of the 2018 revolutionary youth and resistance committees that aligned with the military during the war, a move that two political sources said at the time was also a swipe at the Democratic Bloc, the main military-allied coalition.

The TSC source likewise said that the recent meeting with the National Current was meant to press the Democratic Bloc to reposition itself as one actor among several, rather than the dominant force.

The Democratic Bloc emerged in 2021 out of disputes within the transitional coalition that had brought together signatories to the Juba Peace Agreement and the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC). It contributed to shaping the political conditions that led to the October 25 coup, before becoming the government’s primary political base.

A political source within the bloc said it is now navigating the shifting landscape. “Everybody is trying to deal with the developments,” they said. Internal restructuring is underway, following the bloc’s failure to develop a vision for forming a legislative council, according to the source. The bloc is also facing mounting pressure related to the status of armed movements, particularly as the military moves forward with plans to integrate all irregular forces that fought alongside it during the war into state security institutions, the source added.

Last week, Assistant Commander-in-Chief Yasser al-Atta said the military has begun the process of integrating all allied forces — including armed movements — into state structures. The prospect has raised concerns among leaders within those movements that a rushed process, without a settlement preserving their entitlements under the Juba agreement, could erode their leverage, which mostly stems from their direct command over their fighters and the mobilization networks they control, sources within the movements previously told Mada Masr.

The National Current, for its part, casts the moment in far more ambitious terms.

A member of the group said the meeting should not be read as a step toward “political alignment or power-sharing,” but rather as part of a broader attempt to launch a national dialogue on the core questions of war and statehood. The group, the source said, is seeking to “put forward a comprehensive vision for an organized political dialogue through specialized committees,” addressing questions of transitional governance, rebuilding state institutions and pathways to ending the war.

Nour Eddin Salah Eddin, a leading figure in the National Current and a member of the political committee of the Alliance of the Forces of the Revolution for National Issues, which the National Current is a part of, told Mada Masr that the group submitted a memorandum under the title “Dialogue with the Armed Forces,” describing it as  “a discussion paper aimed at opening a responsible dialogue track.”

The proposal sketches an expansive agenda. According to Salah Eddin, it outlines a framework for reorganizing relations between a professional, apolitical military on one side and a civilian-led transitional governance on the other, and restructuring military and security institutions, while placing issues such as “transitional justice, peace agreements and the root causes of conflicts” on the table.

Salah Eddin insisted the initiative is not about forming an alliance with the military, but about “engaging with a political reality that cannot be ignored.”

Other actors in the civilian camp, however, downplayed the significance of the meeting.

Bakry al-Jack, the spokesperson for the opposition Sumud coalition, told Mada Masr that the meeting does not reflect a meaningful shift, but instead forms part of “attempts to reproduce the legitimacy of the existing authority.” Burhan, he added, is seeking to present himself as a legitimate authority, while some political forces work to create the appearance of broader consensus around him.

A former Foreign Ministry official similarly suggested that the National Current’s moves reflect an effort by segments of the December revolution camp to find a place for themselves after years of marginalization and fragmentation, particularly if negotiations toward a ceasefire and political settlement — mediated by the US-led Quad on Sudan — gain traction.

Othman argues that the National Current represents one of several formations seeking to move beyond the sharp polarization between civilian and military camps by advancing more “pragmatic” approaches to the existing balance of power.

According to Othman, a new layer of political forces emerged after the outbreak of war in 2023. While rejecting Burhan’s 2021 coup, these actors have nonetheless supported the military and taken a firm stance against the RSF. Many are rooted in the December revolution and include the National Current alongside youth formations that oppose both the RSF and Islamist currents while backing the armed forces.

These groups have also been critical of the FFC, once the leading civilian bloc, blaming it for adopting a position of neutrality during the war.

The National Current member told Mada Masr that factions that emerged from the FFC — including the now-dissolved Civil Front for Democracy led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and later the Sumud coalition — have advanced a flawed political model, arguing that their staunch anti-Islamist stance has effectively pushed them closer to the RSF camp.

A former advisor to the TSC said these currents — youth groups, political actors and public figures who oppose both the RSF and Islamists while aligning with the military — are precisely those Burhan is seeking to engage. Keen to avoid being seen as tied to any single political camp, Burhan instead appears to be positioning himself alongside actors who claim the mantle of the revolution while backing the armed forces — a space the National Current is seeking to occupy.

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Idris dismisses Cabinet officials, dissolves state institutions’ boards

In a sweeping set of administrative decisions on March 12, Prime Minister Kamel Idris dismissed several senior Cabinet officials, including the cabinet affairs minister, the Finance Ministry’s planning undersecretary and several of his own advisors.

Idris also ordered the dissolution of the boards of public authorities, state institutions and state-owned companies, tasking undersecretaries and general secretaries with running operations on an interim basis. Both a ministerial source and a political analyst told Mada Masr the dissolutions are linked to Burhan’s push to distance state institutions from Islamist-affiliated figures.

A source close to Idris framed the dismissals as a bid to combat financial and administrative corruption and reset economic priorities under Sudan’s exceptional circumstances, following internal reviews that flagged weaknesses within the premiership and gaps in coordination between ministries.

But another ministerial source said the reshuffle falls within the aim of “recalibrating the center of administrative decision-making,” after overlapping centers of authority emerged during the war.

This has been at the heart of a dispute that spilled into public view in mid-February between Idris and Ibrahim Gaber, the TSC member and assistant commander-in-chief of the armed forces, over who controls the file of the government’s return to Khartoum. Since mid-2025, Gaber has led a committee preparing the capital for the return of residents and state institutions — a role that has allowed him to maintain influence over areas that overlap with the prime minister’s mandate.

The dispute had intensified after Gaber publicly accused the Cabinet Affairs Minister Lamiaa Abdel Ghaffar of leasing government premises in foreign currency, leading Idris to form an investigative committee that ultimately led to her dismissal, according to the ministerial source.

Within Idris’s office, his advisors Badr Eddin al-Gaefry and Mohamed Abdel Qader were dismissed. Two government sources told Mada Masr in January that Idris was considering a reshuffle within his office amid mounting friction with officials in Port Sudan, citing “coordination failures” within the premiership. Gaefry, a TSC source told Mada Masr at the time, has been linked to several administrative disputes within the Cabinet.

As for the measures targeting public bodies and state-owned companies, the first ministerial source and Othman said the move follows last week’s US designation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan as a terrorist organization and fits within Burhan’s efforts to remove officials linked to the former regime.

According to the ministerial source, certain administrations, which they did not disclose, carry Islamist influence. Burhan, they said, is keen to prevent political forces such as the opposition Sumud or the RSF-led Tasis from tying the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan to state institutions.

The source added that some media outlets have portrayed Burhan as a protector or subordinate of the group, and he is working to close off avenues for such narratives.

Speaking on Monday in River Nile State at a Ramadan iftar in the Magarrat area, Burhan stressed that the military has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or the former regime’s National Congress Party. “Let whoever wants to fabricate, fabricate, and whoever wants to talk, talk. The horses keep moving and the dogs bark,” he said, adding that the armed forces do not belong to any party and “know only the Sudanese people.”

Othman said the real issue is not the individuals in charge of state institutions, but the broader political alliances formed since October 25, 2021, which he said explains Burhan’s recent moves courting revolutionary forces.

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RSF seizes Bara again

The RSF announced it once again took control of Bara, just over ten days after the military seized the city, saying in a statement on Monday that it inflicted heavy losses on military forces in personnel and equipment.

The next day, the military spokesperson, Assem Awad, said military units redeployed outside the city “based on field assessments,” after inflicting significant losses on RSF fighters.

An RSF field source told Mada Masr their forces mobilized more than 150 combat vehicles from across West Kordofan and North Kordofan and launched a two-axis assault on Bara under drone cover, forcing military forces to withdraw.

The withdrawal was driven by sustained RSF drone strikes on its positions, amid the absence of an advanced air defense system, which left troop concentrations and defensive positions exposed, a military source told Mada Masr.

According to the source, military and allied forces have fallen back to defensive lines outside Obeid, while RSF units have repositioned to the outskirts of Bara to reduce exposure to military air and artillery strikes.

The source said the military could still retake the city, but stressed that securing it would require control over the Saderat Road linking the city to Omdurman to the north, or alternatively an advance westward to capture Mazroub and establish advanced defenses there.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Sudan Doctors Network said the RSF killed 12 civilians and injured several others in northern Bara, after accusing them of affiliation with the military. 

The military had recaptured Bara on March 5 after weeks of fighting around the city, which has changed hands several times in recent months. In late October, the RSF seized it just over a month after the military had reclaimed it, forcing residents of central neighborhoods to flee and causing widespread destruction to infrastructure. 

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RSF-SPLM-N forces attack on Dalang repelled by military, local supporting forces

The military said it repelled an RSF attack on Monday on South Kordofan’s Dalang, inflicting losses in equipment.

A field source from local mobilized civilians backing the military told Mada Masr the assault began in the early hours and involved fighters from the RSF ally SPLMN-N (Hilu) alongside RSF units.

According to the source, RSF forces advanced on multiple axes, but troops from the 54th Infantry Brigade, backed by civilians, were able to repel the attack.

The attackers withdrew to the outskirts of Dalang, the source said, warning that further assaults were likely as the military received information indicating reinforcements were being mobilized from West Kordofan’s Abu Zabad and Lagawa.

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Fighting flares in North Darfur’s Dar Zaghawa border towns, civilian casualties mount; drone strike from Sudan kills 16 in Chadian Tina

 

In the Dar Zaghawa tribe territory of North Darfur, near the border with Chad, the RSF said on Monday it established full control over Karnoi following clashes with the military and the allied joint force, which it said had been using the area as a base.

But a community notable in Karnoi told Mada Masr that the area had been largely devoid of any military or joint force presence when RSF fighters moved in, adding that many residents had already fled or crossed into neighboring Chad.

Months of escalation as the RSF pressed offensives to seize remaining military-held territory in North Darfur have driven widespread killing and displacement across Zaghawa areas, including Tina, Karnoi and Ambro, a source in the joint force previously told Mada Masr.

Doctors without Borders said the organization and Chadian health authorities received 123 wounded people from Sudan on Monday, 17 of whom died in the hospital and 66 arrived in critical condition.

The injured were treated in a newly built hospital the agency said is severely under-resourced, after security conditions forced relocation. “We treat patients without water or electricity, using a generator and solar panels. With the massive influx of patients, our stock of medicines is running out, and it is difficult to get more,” MSF said, citing a staff member.

The Sudanese side ofTina also saw heavy fighting on Tuesday after RSF forces pushed into the town and briefly took control. Military and allied forces later carried out a flanking maneuver that inflicted significant losses on RSF fighters and pushed them out, according to a field source in the joint force.

The source said that the joint force, backed by the Popular Resistance Forces, destroyed dozens of vehicles that had entered Tina, captured others and dispersed the remaining fighters. Several RSF members, including the assault commander, were killed, while others were captured, according to the source.

On Wednesday, a drone strike launched from Sudan hit the Chadian town of Tina, striking a funeral gathering and killing at least 15 people, a senior local official and military source told AFP.

Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby convened an emergency security meeting that night and ordered a delegation to assess the damage. He also instructed the military to respond to any cross-border attacks originating from Sudan, according to a presidency statement.

The fighting has repeatedly spilled into Chad, ultimately prompting N’Djamena to close its border after RSF fighters clashed with Chadian troops, killing several soldiers.

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