Mohamed Deidan, spokesman for the Sudanese Armed Forces special forces, said the army had taken full control of al-Mazroub after fierce fighting with the Rapid Support Forces on Friday.
The claim concerns a town in western North Kordofan, about 90 kilometres west of Bara, at a crossroads between army-held areas of the state and West Kordofan, an RSF stronghold. The army describes al-Mazroub as one of the RSF’s most important positions in North Kordofan.
Deidan said the capture was an important step in the army’s effort to cut RSF supply lines. Al-Mazroub links army-controlled North Kordofan to West Kordofan, giving the town significance for routes used to move personnel and supplies.
The SAF says the operation extends a run of military gains in North Kordofan. In recent months, it has pushed the RSF out of much of the state, and it says taking al-Mazroub weakens the group’s access to fighters and supply routes.
Control of the town matters because Kordofan lies between Darfur and central Sudan. The region comprises North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan, contains Sudan’s main oil fields including Heglig, and has a population close to eight million.
El-Obeid, North Kordofan’s commercial and administrative hub, links central Sudan with the west. The SAF controls Khartoum and most of the country’s north, east and centre, while the RSF holds much of western Sudan, including almost all of Darfur and parts of Kordofan.
The Kordofan campaign began on 15 April 2023, when the RSF said it had seized El Obeid Airport. By 11 June 2023, El-Obeid was reported to be under RSF siege. World Food Programme officials had reported on 1 June 2023 that warehouses in the city had been looted of food sufficient to feed 4.4 million people.
The SAF said it broke the siege of El-Obeid in February 2025. Earlier, on 20 June 2024, RSF forces led by Salih Al-Foti captured Al-Fulah, the capital of West Kordofan, and took Al-Meiram on 5 July 2024.
The army later retook Umm Ruwaba on 30 January 2025.
Al-Tayeb, an RSF commander, defected to the Sudan Army with around 50 fighters after travelling through areas east of the Sudri axis and reaching Al-Firja.
Alan Boswell, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the army’s aim in Kordofan was to defeat the RSF there and then move west into Darfur. The RSF’s hold over almost all of Darfur makes the routes through North Kordofan central to that wider military objective.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan has released a report documenting the recruitment, training and deployment of foreign personnel by transnational entities supporting the Rapid Support Forces. Kordofan has accounted for one in five recorded attacks in Sudan’s war since the campaign began in April 2023.
The SAF’s account of the capture leaves open how effectively it can hold al-Mazroub and whether the loss will disrupt RSF recruitment and resupply. The immediate significance rests on the town’s position between North Kordofan and the RSF-held areas to the west.
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