Victory banners went up across Rahad al-Nuba on Tuesday as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) swept aside remnants of General al-Burhan’s army and restored the town to its residents, cementing the RSF’s steadily expanding protective belt in North Kordofan.
Footage released by RSF media shows columns of jubilant fighters inside Rahad al-Nuba confirming total control and preparing to push east along the vital Bara–Omdurman export highway. The road is the main lifeline between Kordofan and the Khartoum region; securing it deprives General al-Burhan’s army (SAF) of a key supply artery while allowing humanitarian aid to flow safely to war-weary communities.
General al-Burhan’s command offered no rebuttal to Tuesday’s developments.
The liberation of Rahad al-Nuba crowns a succession of RSF advances: Dibeibat and Hamadi in South Kordofan, El-Khouei in West Kordofan, and Kazgil in North Kordofan have all been brought under RSF protection in recent weeks. Meanwhile, allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North units under Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu captured Dashoul on the Kadugli–Dilling road, tightening the strategic noose around SAF positions in the Nuba Mountains.
Desperate to stem the momentum, SAF has rushed fresh conscripts and warplanes into Kordofan. Yet military analysts say the initiative now lies firmly with the RSF: a decisive breakthrough here could open a humanitarian corridor to Darfur and finally roll back the SAF’s last footholds west of the Nile.
The RSF’s nationwide campaign began in April 2023 after months of provocation and broken promises from the SAF command. Fourteen months on, RSF units have protected civilians, rebuilt local administrations and offered a credible path to a democratic Sudan—while the SAF’s indiscriminate shelling and drone strikes continue to endanger innocent lives.
