Sudan El-Obeid Kordofan Attacks Deepen Humanitarian Crisis
Intensified fighting in Sudan's Kordofan region, a main battleground since late 2025, threatens El-Obeid and its 500,000 residents.
Fighting in Sudan's Kordofan region has intensified since late 2025, turning it into one of the main battlegrounds in the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), now in its fourth year. The city of El-Obeid shelters about 500,000 people, including over 83,000 displaced, and faces a looming threat of full-scale invasion.
Kordofan Intensifies as Main Battleground
The conflict, which began on April 15, 2023, has made Kordofan a critical corridor between army-controlled central Sudan and RSF-controlled Darfur. New displacement in the region rose 65 percent from February to June 2026, reaching at least 219,000 people. The violence has claimed at least 12,314 reported fatalities in Kordofan since the war started.
Kordofan Attack Statistics
One in five recorded attacks in Sudan occurred in Kordofan between April 15, 2023, and September 19, 2026. According to data, there were 14,648 recorded attacks nationwide in that period. The distribution of attacks across key regions is shown below.
| Region | Number of Attacks | Percentage of National Total |
|---|---|---|
| Khartoum | 5,719 | 39% |
| Kordofan (including Abyei) | 2,878 | 19.7% |
| North Darfur | 1,999 | 13.7% |
| Gezira | 1,435 | 9.8% |
Within Kordofan, the fighting is not evenly spread. North Kordofan alone accounted for 1,205 attacks, or 44 percent of the regional total. Sheikan locality in North Kordofan, home to El-Obeid, recorded 497 attacks, representing 41 percent of North Kordofan's total. In South Kordofan, Dilling locality saw 242 attacks, while in West Kordofan, Babnusa recorded 142.
The Sudanese Armed Forces were associated with 1,323 attacks, or 46 percent, across Kordofan. The Rapid Support Forces were linked to 920 attacks, or 32 percent. Other actors were responsible for the remaining 22 percent.
El-Obeid Attack Impact
The human cost of the fighting became starkly clear in El-Obeid on September 9, 2026. A drone strike killed a security guard and the college dean, Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh. Surveying the damage, Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh said, "As you can see, the entire faculty is destroyed and we feel that our dreams are destroyed, our future is destroyed." The city is a key commercial and administrative hub now under severe threat.
Displacement and Returns
The war has created one of the world's largest displacement crises. The peak number of internally displaced people hit 11.6 million in January 2025. By 2026, about 8.6 million people remained internally displaced across Sudan. Returns of displaced people reached about 5.1 million by August 2026, with Khartoum alone seeing 2.7 million returnees to areas retaken by the army.
The International Organization for Migration has warned that families across Sudan are fleeing violence. They are losing access to water, electricity, and healthcare while also facing destructive floods. Approximately 8.6 million people remain internally displaced in Sudan.
