KHARTOUM — Sudan's army and its allied forces seized three areas and several villages east of Al-Nuhud in West Kordofan state on Saturday and kept advancing toward the city, military sources told Anadolu Agency, extending an offensive that a day earlier captured the town of Al-Khuwai.

The sources said the army took Khamasat, Markab and Umm Oweisha, east of Al-Nuhud — West Kordofan's second-largest city, which remains under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Army personnel and allied fighters shared videos on social media showing troops entering Khamasat and Umm Oweisha, Anadolu reported.

The advance follows Friday's capture of Al-Khuwai, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Al-Nuhud, after clashes with the RSF — the gain reported in our earlier story on the offensive that broke the RSF siege on Al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan. Read: Sudan Army Says It Has Taken Al-Khuwai as Kordofan Offensive Breaks the Siege on Al-Obeid

On November 7, the army also seized Ayal Bakhit, northwest of Al-Khuwai, after fighting with the paramilitary group, sources familiar with the clashes told Anadolu. Fighting between the army and the RSF has intensified across North, West and South Kordofan states since October 25 last year, the agency said.

Relief committee reports 10 civilians killed inside Al-Nuhud

Inside Al-Nuhud itself, a Sudanese relief group, the Dar Hamar Emergency Committee, said the RSF killed 10 civilians in the city, alongside looting and a blackout in communications across the area, Anadolu reported on Saturday. The committee's account has not been independently verified, and the RSF issued no immediate response to the claim in the reports reviewed.

Why Al-Nuhud matters

Analysts say this week's gains have shifted the Kordofan front in the army's favour: the offensive, fought alongside allied Darfur forces, broke the RSF siege on Al-Obeid and opened new routes for the army in central and southwest Sudan, including an important road linking Al-Nuhud — a centre for gold mining — with Al-Khuwai, Al Jazeera reported. The RSF and its alleged allies still hold Al-Nuhud and parts of South Kordofan, and the paramilitary still controls all five states of Darfur, including El-Fasher, which fell in October 2025 after a long siege.

The war between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, erupted in April 2023. It has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 13 million, according to UN estimates cited by Anadolu.