Sudan Nashra: Military gains ground in Blue Nile front | RSF drones hit busy markets in North Darfur’s Zaghawa lands | Emerging alliance under Abdel Wahid Nur seeks seat at table in Sudan’s political talks

Subscribe to our Lens on Sudan newsletter here . Markets across North Darfur’s Zaghawa tribal lands were bustling with shoppers and livestock sellers ahead of Eid al-Adha when Rapid Support Forces drones struck the market centers of Tina and Karnoi earlier this week. The relative calm that settled over parts of the lands after last month’s wave of violence encouraged people to venture out for Eid shopping, making the markets unusually busy. When the drones hit, shrapnel tore through the crowds, killing at least 14 people in Tina alone and wounding dozens more, some critically. A medical source in the town told Mada Masr the death toll was likely to rise as field hospitals grapple with severe shortages of medical supplies. A local activist said the attacks on markets appeared intended to disrupt the supply and trading networks sustaining the last remaining military and joint force-held areas in Darfur, while simultaneously spreading panic among displaced communities sheltering there in an attempt to drive them out. RSF drone attacks also returned to the capital this week after nearly three weeks of cautious calm following the catalytic strike on Khartoum International Airport. In Omdurman, one of the three cities that make up the capital, a suicide drone struck Dar Essalam neighborhood on Friday, killing one person and injuring at least five others. A second drone involved in the attack was intercepted, according to a security official, who said the drones had been launched from RSF platforms outside Khartoum State. As RSF drones continued to target military-held areas, the paramilitary group’s forces on the ground suffered setbacks along the Blue Nile front near the Ethiopian border. Military sources said troops were advancing on the strategic city of Kurmuk from several directions in an effort to cut one of the RSF’s main regional supply corridors running through the city. On Monday, the military recaptured Baraka, a strategic road junction around 12 km west of Kurmuk, and by Wednesday advance units had pushed as far as Zariba to the city’s northwest, closing to within five kilometers of Kurmuk. Despite the advance, a military source said a direct assault on the city remains complicated by the RSF’s heavy reliance on drones, as well as the continued concentration of fighters and military vehicles on the outskirts of Kurmuk opposite the Ethiopian border. The source said the military appears likely to continue wearing down RSF defenses before moving toward a decisive battle for the city. In neighboring Geisan locality, the military expanded its gains for a second week, capturing several areas along the Ethiopian border. According to a local official, securing those areas would help prevent RSF fighters based in Ethiopia from crossing into Geisan. Still, the cross-border drone threat persists. On Saturday, a drone the military said had been launched from Ethiopia entered the airspace over the state capital of Damazin and targeted both the airport and command of the Fourth Infantry Division. A security official said the drone was eventually shot down and caused no damage. In his Eid address, Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair and military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan paid customary tribute to soldiers and civilians fighting the RSF across Sudan. Burhan used the speech to announce preparations for a “comprehensive political dialogue” to be held “inside Sudan,” stressing that the Sudanese people would not accept the outcomes of “conferences and dialogues held in capitals that are bought and sold.” The comments appeared to reference developments in Nairobi just days earlier, where Sudanese civilian and armed groups gathered under the emerging Declaration of Principle Forces alliance led by Abdel Wahid Nur’s Sudan Liberation Movement. The conference produced a political roadmap outlining proposals for ending the war and ceasefire arrangements, while consolidating the alliance as a growing political force. The group now brings together Nur’s SLM, which has driven the initiative since 2023, the opposition Sumud coalition led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, the Baath Party and the Popular Congress Party. A senior source in the alliance told Mada Masr the group is attempting to build a political platform capable of operating outside Sudan’s rigid wartime camps and the repeated failures of civilian forces to forge consensus around ending the war. But a political source aligned with the military-led government said the alliance is looking to assemble what the source described as “periphery” forces, with an eye toward postwar political arrangements. With the Nairobi meetings serving to formalize the alliance, its leaders are now looking toward a second phase focused on engaging actors from the war’s rival civilian fronts, according to a Sumud leader. This would involve parallel talks with both the Democratic Bloc — the military-led government’s main political base — and Tasis, the RSF-led coalition. A source involved in facilitating the Nairobi talks said the alliance had already opened channels with the Democratic Bloc on several issues raised during the meetings, though a senior bloc official declined to confirm or deny that contacts had taken place. *** Military gains ground in Blue Nile front Military troops showing a vehicle they seized after repelling an RSF attack on Baraka in Blue Nile, May 27. - Courtesy: Military-allied Telegram channel @c3OTA8 The military expanded its gains along the Blue Nile front this week, recapturing several border areas in Geisan locality and pushing closer to the strategic city of Kurmuk, military sources told Mada Masr. In Kurmuk locality, where the military is looking to cut off one of the RSF’s main supply corridors in the region running through the city of Kurmuk, a military source said troops moved on Baraka from Sali, a key defensive position around 25 kilometers north of Kurmuk, before capturing the area nearly 12 km outside the city. During the clashes, dozens of fighters from the RSF and the Joseph Tuka-led SPLM-N faction were killed or wounded, a field source in the military-allied SPLM-N faction led by Malik Agar said. The military also seized combat vehicles, an ammunition depot and several tanks, while destroying one of the RSF’s jamming systems. Baraka’s importance lies in its position at the intersection of several key routes, giving the military greater room to maneuver as fighting edges closer to Kurmuk city itself, the military source said. In the early hours of Wednesday, RSF fighters and allied forces launched a counterattack aimed at retaking Baraka, according to the field source. Military forces and allied civilian fighters repelled the assault, destroying and capturing several vehicles before RSF fighters withdrew toward Kurmuk while stepping up drone strikes on military defensive positions. Military forces are now advancing on Kurmuk from several directions. Advance guards reached the Zariba area northwest of the city on Wednesday, leaving troops along that axis around five km away, the military source said. Despite the advances, the main obstacle to a direct assault remains the RSF’s extensive use of drones, alongside the continued deployment of large numbers of fighters and military vehicles on the outskirts of Kurmuk opposite the Ethiopian border, according to the military source. RSF forces remain capable of maneuvering around advancing troops and setting ambushes, the source added, suggesting the military would likely seek to wear down RSF defenses before launching a decisive battle for the city. Further north along the border with Ethiopia, the military continued to regain territory in neighboring Geisan locality for a second consecutive week. On Monday, forces from the 13th Infantry Brigade of the Fourth Infantry Division recaptured the areas of Ab Dagla, Adi Washambo and Um Shanfar. The military said its forces inflicted heavy losses on RSF and allied forces, seized combat vehicles and pursued retreating fighters toward the border. The gains followed the recapture of the towns of Karan Karan and Dokan on May 18 after heavy fighting with the RSF. A local official told Mada Masr the areas are strategically important because of their location along the Ethiopian border, adding that securing them would help prevent RSF forces gathering in Ethiopian territory from crossing over and infiltrating Geisan. In the Blue Nile capital of Damazin, a strategic drone the military said had entered from Ethiopia struck Damazin’s airport and the command of the Fourth Infantry Division on Saturday without causing casualties or damage, another military source told Mada Masr. The drone was shot down using an air-to-air missile fired from a military drone and crashed in the Wad Abuk area of Tadamon locality southwest of Damazin, the source added. The military circulated footage showing the drone being intercepted. *** RSF drones strike busy markets in North Darfur’s Karnoi, Tina Aftermath of RSF drone strikes on the market of Karnoi in North Darfur, May 25. - Courtesy: The Coordination of the Resistance Committees in Fasher on Facebook At least 14 people were killed and dozens more wounded when RSF drone strikes hit the markets of North Darfur’s Karnoi and Tina, which were crowded with shoppers and traders ahead of Eid al-Adha, eyewitnesses and a medical source told Mada Masr. Situated in the Zaghawa tribal lands straddling the Chadian border, the two localities are among the last remaining strongholds of the military and allied joint force in Darfur since Fasher fell to the RSF late last year. In Tina, a trader said a drone dove suddenly into the market on Sunday afternoon, when the area was packed with people and commercial activity, before detonating in a massive explosion that destroyed rows of small shops and sent shrapnel tearing through the crowds. The following day, drones struck the market in neighboring Karnoi, according to an eyewitness, setting off a series of explosions that shook the town and sent people fleeing as thick smoke rose over the area. Another eyewitness said the markets had been especially busy following a period of relative calm across parts of the region during May and the approach of Eid al-Adha. Livestock traders had arrived in large numbers and goods continued to flow in from Chad, making the markets unusually crowded at the time of the strikes. An activist involved in North Darfur’s emergency rooms said the attacks appeared aimed at disrupting the economic and supply networks sustaining areas under the control of the military and allied armed movements, while also spreading terror among displaced communities sheltering there. A medical official at a field hospital near Tina said emergency rooms received 14 bodies on Sunday, in addition to more than 50 wounded people suffering injuries of varying severity, including requiring amputations caused by shrapnel. The official warned that the death toll was likely to rise, saying volunteer medical workers were struggling to cope amid acute shortages of blood bags, IV fluids and surgical supplies, while evacuating critically wounded patients to larger hospitals remains difficult. A local administration official described the strikes as part of efforts to undermine civilian life in some of the last remaining refuge areas in North Darfur, saying the repeated use of suicide drones against crowded civilian spaces appears intended to force further displacement and deepen an already severe humanitarian crisis. Karnoi and Tina form part of what is known as the Zaghawa triangle, a historic military and demographic stronghold of military-allied armed movements, particularly the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minnawi and the Justice and Equality Movement headed by Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim — the core groups that make up the joint force. The area also lies along a strategic trade and supply corridor from Chad that the RSF has repeatedly sought to capture in order to strengthen logistical links to fronts stretching eastward toward Kordofan. The latest strikes came as Karnoi and Tina were still reeling from an escalation in violence against civilians between March and April, when RSF abuses and attacks on homes and neighborhoods triggered yet another wave of mass displacement. *** RSF drone strikes Omdurman killing, injuring civilians Aftermath of the RSF strike on Dar Essalam neighborhood in Omdurman, May 22. - Courtesy: Khartoum State on Facebook An RSF suicide drone strike on Omdurman’s Dar Essalam neighborhood killed one person and injured at least five others on Friday evening, residents and a medical source told Mada Masr. The attack breaks a period of cautious calm in Khartoum that followed major escalation earlier this month, when drone strikes hit Khartoum International Airport and targeted nearby military and residential areas. A resident of Omdurman’s Block 43 and a shop owner near the site said the area had been busy with normal evening activity when the drone dove down and exploded, causing panic as the blast damaged surrounding buildings, scattered shrapnel across the area and sent smoke billowing over the neighborhood. According to a member of Omdurman’s local response committees, a second drone was involved in the attack, but military air defenses detected it over western Omdurman and shot it down in Umbada before it could reach its target. Security and intelligence agencies had tracked two suicide drones launched from RSF platforms outside the borders of Khartoum State, an official from the state’s security committee told Mada Masr, confirming that one was intercepted. The official described the attack as an attempt by the RSF to compensate for setbacks on the ground and send political and military messages by targeting a safe civilian area. A medical source at a nearby hospital said emergency teams received the body of a victim who died instantly from shrapnel wounds, along with several injured civilians who were treated for injuries caused by shrapnel and flying debris. Most of the wounded, they added, were later discharged after their conditions stabilized. Khartoum Governor Ahmed Osman Hamza condemned the strike during a visit to the site on Saturday morning. In a statement released by the Khartoum State government, alongside photographs documenting the damage in Block 43, Hamza said the attack was intended to undermine security and spread fear among residents returning home after a long period of displacement. *** Emerging alliance under Abdel Wahid Nur seeks seat at table in Sudan’s political talks Attendees of the Declaration of Principles Forces meeting in Nairobi gather for photos during the opening session, May 22. - Courtesy: The Sumud coalition on Facebook Sudanese civilian and armed groups convened in Nairobi over the weekend for the second leadership meeting of the Declaration of Principles Forces, an emerging political alliance led by Abdel Wahid Nur’s Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-Nur) that is seeking to establish itself as an alternative center of political gravity. Over two days of discussions on Friday and Saturday, participants sought to consolidate the alliance and advance what members speaking to Mada Masr described as an independent Sudanese political track aimed at ending the war and negotiating a civilian transition outside the rival camps that have dominated the political landscape since 2023. However, a political source aligned with the military-led government said the alliance is looking to engineer a new political architecture assembling what the source described as “periphery” forces with an eye toward postwar arrangements. The Nairobi meetings constituted the first phase of a broader political process, according to a senior leadership figure in Sumud. Leaders from SLM, Sumud, the Baath Party and the Popular Congress Party all took part in the talks, the source said. The next phase is expected to proceed on two parallel tracks, engaging both the Democratic Bloc — the military-led government’s main political base — and Tasis, the RSF-led coalition heading the parallel government in western Sudan. Handling both tracks in parallel is intended to minimize the risk of a direct confrontation that could derail the emerging alliance in its earliest stages, the source said. A source involved in the committees facilitating the discussions said organizers had already communicated with the Democratic Bloc on several issues raised during the meetings in an effort to reflect the bloc’s position before moving toward direct talks. Asked whether contacts with participants in the Nairobi talks had taken place, a senior source in the Democratic Bloc declined to confirm or deny communication, but stressed that the bloc would not participate in any Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue held outside Sudan. The senior Sumud source said that growing frustration among some Democratic Bloc members over their declining leverage within the de-facto order has pushed them to explore alternative political channels, as Burhan moves to reshape the civilian camp surrounding the government. At the conclusion of the meetings, participants in Nairobi endorsed a roadmap outlining pathways to ending the war, alongside proposals on ceasefire arrangements, security measures and alliance membership criteria, SLM (Nur) spokesperson Mohamed Abdel Rahman al-Nayer told Mada Masr. According to Nayer, the meetings reaffirmed support for expanding dialogue among Sudanese political actors while excluding figures tied to the former ruling Islamist establishment, which he described as “forces obstructing the political transition.” The Nairobi gathering marked the alliance’s first major public push to advance a political front that has gradually emerged through rounds of bilateral consultations led by Abdel Wahid Nur since late 2023. According to a senior leader in the alliance, the effort is aimed at constructing a platform that can operate outside the entrenched polarization imposed by Sudan’s rival wartime camps and the repeated failures to forge civilian consensus around ending the war, while carving out a distinct position within a political landscape already crowded with competing anti-war initiatives. The alliance’s founding meeting took place in Nairobi in December 2025 and produced a first draft of a charter centered on establishing a “third bloc” outside Sudan’s dominant military and civilian camps. The latest round sought to expand that framework and translate it into a more detailed political and organizational structure, the senior alliance source said. The senior Sumud member told Mada Masr that the meetings are also intended to coordinate positions ahead of anticipated Quintet mechanism talks in Addis Ababa in June — a high-level coalition comprising the United Nations, African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Arab League and European Union, formed to support and coordinate mediation efforts on Sudan’s political process. The Quintet previously welcomed consultations among Sudanese civilian forces held during the International Conference on Sudan in Berlin in April, which included all participants in the Nairobi talks but took place in the absence of SLM (Nur). A political source aligned with forces supporting the military-led government said that the Nairobi meetings are viewed in official circles as a continuation of political understandings that took shape in the closed-door meetings held on the sidelines of the Berlin conference under what the source described as international sponsorship. In the source’s reading, both Berlin and Nairobi talks are part of an attempt to dismantle Sudan’s existing alliances and engineer a new political architecture assembling “broad periphery” forces in order to influence postwar arrangements outside the military establishment’s framework. In his Eid al-Adha address on Tuesday, Burhan said arrangements are underway for a political dialogue to be held inside Sudan, while rejecting what he described as the “results of conferences and dialogues held in capitals that are bought and sold,” as well as any externally imposed political solutions he said serve foreign interests. Nayer and the senior sources in both the Declaration of Principles Forces and Sumud insist the initiative remains an independent Sudanese political process rather than an internationally engineered platform. The Sumud source added that the process could ultimately supersede Sumud’s current structure as the emerging alliance continues to expand. Sumud itself emerged after the breakup of Hamdok’s Civil Front for Democracy in the wake of the RSF parallel government’s founding conference in Nairobi in February 2025, when key members aligned with the RSF split from the front and signed the founding charter — a deal that evolved into the RSF-led Tasis coalition. Still led by Hamdok, Sumud currently includes a range of anti-war actors, including political parties, civil society organizations, unions, professional associations and resistance committees. *** Subscribe to our Lens on Sudan newsletter here . The post Sudan Nashra: Military gains ground in Blue Nile front | RSF drones hit busy markets in North Darfur’s Zaghawa lands | Emerging alliance under Abdel Wahid Nur seeks seat at table in Sudan’s political talks first appeared on Mada Masr .