RSF Says It Seized Two Army Bases in Sudan’s Blue Nile

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said on Friday that its fighters, alongside the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), had seized two army bases in the southeastern Blue Nile region. The claim, first carried by Sudan Tribune, covers the Bakori and Surkum bases southeast of Ed Damazin, the state capital.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had neither confirmed nor denied the loss as of Saturday morning, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported. The army said instead that it had repelled a joint RSF-SPLM-N offensive in the Fazogli area, and on Saturday announced fresh deployments toward Bakori.

01 What each side says

The RSF statement claimed the capture of the Bakori and Surkum bases, which Anadolu rendered as “Sarkam.” Both sit southeast of Damazin, on the road toward the Ethiopian frontier.

The army’s public response stopped short of addressing the bases directly. On Friday it said its forces repelled a joint RSF-SPLM-N attack in Fazogli, a district along the border, and the 4th Infantry Division said on Saturday that an “Elite Brigade” of the security and intelligence service had departed for the Bakori axis on a combat mission.

Independent confirmation of who currently holds the two bases was not available. Battlefield claims by both sides in this war have frequently proven premature or exaggerated.

02 Who is fighting whom

The RSF is a paramilitary force that grew out of the Janjaweed militias of the Darfur war. It has fought Sudan’s regular army, the SAF, since April 2023.

The SPLM-N is a rebel movement rooted in Blue Nile state and the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan. Its largest faction, led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, formalized an alliance with the RSF in February 2025 under the RSF-led Tasis coalition, and a local SPLM-N commander, Joseph Toka, fights alongside the RSF inside Blue Nile.

That alliance remains active. RSF and SPLM-N units have campaigned together in Blue Nile since January, opening a front the army had largely avoided earlier in the war.

03 Where Bakori and Surkum sit

Bakori is a garrison area roughly 20 kilometers from Damazin, according to the Egyptian outlet Mada Masr. Army units fell back there after losing the border town of Geisan to a joint RSF-SPLM-N assault earlier in August.

Surkum lies in the same southeastern corridor. The RSF and its allies retook Geisan and the town of Kurmuk this month, reversing army gains made in June and July.

04 The Ethiopia factor

On Thursday, the army said it shot down a “hostile strategic drone” in Blue Nile state after it crossed the border from Ethiopia. It was the third such drone the military claimed to have downed within a week.

Sudanese military sources say the RSF regrouped and trained around Asosa, in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, before the August offensive, Mada Masr reported. Sudanese officials have also accused foreign backers of arming the RSF across that border, claims the group’s alleged sponsors have denied.

05 What it means for the war’s map

The army holds Khartoum and most of northern, eastern and central Sudan. The RSF holds most of Darfur and is pressing in Kordofan and, now, in Blue Nile.

The conflict-monitoring group ACLED has warned that RSF control of Blue Nile would open routes toward Sennar state and reopen the contest for central Sudan. More than 100,000 people have fled the Blue Nile fighting this year, according to humanitarian reporting compiled since the front opened in January.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief