The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) said on Friday that they had captured al-Mazroub, the administrative capital of West Bara Locality in North Kordofan, after battles with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — the latest gain in the army's monthslong offensive across northern Kordofan. The announcement came in an army statement on October 2. The RSF had not issued any public statement on the loss at the time of reporting, but the Sudan War Monitor said it had reviewed and geolocated videos confirming the presence of Sudanese army and allied Joint Force elements in several parts of the town, including Joint Force fighters filming in front of the Mazroub court in the city center.
What did the army claim?
In its statement, the military said its forces and allied groups captured al-Mazroub following what it described as fierce fighting, inflicting heavy losses in personnel and vehicles on the RSF. The army did not provide casualty figures or details of vehicles destroyed or captured. The Sudan War Monitor said it could not independently verify the army's claims concerning RSF losses — and found no evidence of fighting inside the town itself — while noting the geolocated videos confirm the SAF's physical presence there.
The army also urged residents in areas its forces had captured to return to their normal activities, and said its operations would continue until the country was cleared of what it called the "terrorist militia" and its supporters.
A Sudanese army source told Al Jazeera that al-Mazroub was the RSF's largest stronghold in North Kordofan. Army Special Forces spokesman Mohammed Deidan told the Anadolu news agency that the town links North Kordofan and West Kordofan, and that by seizing it the army was advancing its goal of cutting the RSF's supply lines. The RSF's silence on the loss fits a wartime pattern, the Sudan War Monitor noted: both sides in Sudan's war have often refrained from publicly acknowledging territorial losses to preserve troop morale.
Why does al-Mazroub matter?
Al-Mazroub's capture extends an SAF offensive that began in July, when the army opened the Al-Sadarat Highway (also known as Al-Inqaz Al-Qarbi Road) and seized Jabra al-Sheikh, Umm Sayalla, Barah and several other towns along it, followed by a second phase that took Kajmar, Sharshar, Al-Baniya Al-Kurayniya and areas surrounding Mazroub itself. Last week the army captured Sodari, the administrative headquarters of Sodari Locality, pushing the RSF north to Umm Badr and Hamrat al-Sheikh and south to Mazroub.
With Mazroub, the SAF now controls most of North Kordofan's localities, according to the Sudan War Monitor, with the RSF retaining territory mainly in parts of Sodari Locality — around Umm Badr and Hamrat al-Sheikh — and in Sheikan Locality, which includes the state capital El Obeid, where RSF units remain west of the city around Abu Qa'ud and Umm Sumaima and south of it around Kazgil.
The advance could complicate the position of RSF forces operating west of El Obeid: army gains farther north open the possibility of approaching those positions from more than one direction, and of disrupting RSF movement and supply routes between Sheikan and areas farther west, potentially forcing units to withdraw or redeploy.
The wider picture
Kordofan has become one of the main battlegrounds of Sudan's war, now in its fourth year since the army and the RSF fell out in April 2023. Fighting in the region intensified in late 2025; since the war began, roughly one in five recorded attacks in Sudan has taken place in Kordofan. The army holds the upper hand in the north, the RSF in the west, and South Kordofan remains contested — a balance that Friday's announcement, if the army's gains hold, would tilt further toward the SAF in the north.
Related: our [September 30 report on Sudan's rejection of the US-backed ceasefire proposal](/articles/2026-09-30-sudan-burhan-rejects-visa-linked-ceasefire).
