# Sudanese Army Capture of Sawdiri Tightens the Noose on RSF in Kordofan

*Friday, September 25, 2026 at 8:06 PM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-09-25T20:06:03.495Z (2h ago)
**Category**: conflict | **Region**: Africa
**Importance**: 8/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/18816.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

---

**Deck**: Sudan’s regular army has seized Sawdiri, the last major Rapid Support Forces stronghold in North Kordofan, after days of desert operations that forced RSF units to fall back south and west. The advance shifts the balance on a key front, with civilians and trade routes caught between rival forces and no political settlement in sight.

Government troops in Sudan have captured the town of Sawdiri in North Kordofan, tightening military pressure on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and reshaping one of the civil war’s most contested fronts.

Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) units entered Sawdiri on 25 September after a six‑day push through desert terrain, according to battlefield reporting and mapping shared by conflict trackers. The town was widely described as the RSF’s last significant foothold in North Kordofan state. Its loss leaves the paramilitary movement on the back foot in an area that links the capital region, key logistics routes, and the western heartlands where the RSF still retains considerable strength.

The fighting around Sawdiri capped a broader SAF effort to clear RSF elements from North Kordofan’s desert belt by accelerating their retreat to the south and west. Imagery from the front line showed regular army fighters, some carrying heavy weapons including a Chinese‑designed 35mm QLZ‑87 automatic grenade launcher firing DFJ87 high‑explosive dual‑purpose grenades. The presence of such systems underlines that the campaign is not a skirmish between lightly armed militias but a conventional, if fragmented, war between well‑equipped formations.

For civilians in North Kordofan, the change of control is unlikely to bring immediate peace. The region has already seen disrupted trade, criminality and repeated clashes as the two forces fight for territory and taxation points. When one side advances, the other often responds with shelling or counter‑raids, leaving residents exposed and basic services insecure. The desert environment also means many communities rely heavily on contested roads for food, fuel and medical supplies, so any shift in who mans checkpoints can have direct economic consequences.

Strategically, Sawdiri’s fall matters for both sides’ maps. For the SAF, consolidating North Kordofan helps protect lines from the central riverine heartland toward Darfur and other western regions. It gives the army a stronger frontal position from which to challenge RSF control and could, over time, support efforts to squeeze paramilitary units operating further west. For the RSF, the setback compounds a series of incremental losses outside its core urban bastions and rural strongholds, raising the cost of trying to sustain a multi‑front war against state forces.

The town’s capture also feeds into a broader pattern seen over recent months: the SAF slowly clawing back ground in some marginal areas while the RSF retains leverage in others, especially economically important neighborhoods and border corridors. Neither side has achieved the kind of decisive breakthrough that would force a political accommodation. Instead, attritional advances like Sawdiri increase the temptation for each camp to keep betting on battlefield momentum rather than negotiate, even as humanitarian needs surge.

For regional actors and international mediators, the shift in North Kordofan complicates any future ceasefire lines or monitoring arrangements. Each time territory changes hands, any hypothetical demarcation between forces becomes a moving target, and local grievances over who collaborated with whom grow sharper. Sawdiri’s residents now have to navigate their relationship with a new set of commanders, knowing that the RSF could seek to return or destabilize the area indirectly.

One sentence captures the stakes: in Sudan’s war, even a remote desert town can become a hinge that swings whole regions toward siege or fragile normality. What happens in Sawdiri over the next weeks – whether the SAF can hold, administer and secure it without large‑scale abuses or reprisal attacks – will be an early test.

Signals to watch include whether the RSF attempts a counter‑offensive in North Kordofan or chooses instead to dig in deeper further south and west, and whether the army exploits the gain to push along key roads toward more densely populated centers. Any fresh displacement flows out of the region, or moves by Khartoum’s leadership to tout Sawdiri as proof it need not compromise at the negotiating table, will show how much this single town’s fall alters the trajectory of Sudan’s broader civil war.