CAIRO (AP) — The fight between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has escalated in Sudan’s central Kordofan region, killing at least four people, healthcare workers said on Friday.
Sudan's paramilitary forces launched artillery shelling on neighborhoods in Obeid city, the capital of North Kordofan province, on Thursday night, killing at least four people and injuring others, Sudan Doctors’ Network said in a statement. The group said the shelling targeted women and elderly people.
“The RSF is targeting civilians with guided artillery rockets, deliberately inflicting fatalities in the neighborhoods of El-Obeid, which ... are densely populated with displaced people and those who fled from areas under RSF control,” the group said.
The fighting in North Kordofan displaced around 700 households between July 4 and July 9, according to the latest update by the International Organization for Migration.
Obeid city was previously an RSF stronghold. The Sudanese military broke the RSF's yearlong siege in February, restoring access in the south-central region and strengthening crucial supply routes. The city is home to a major airbase and the military’s 5th Infantry Division, known as Haganah.
Sudan plunged into civil war in April 2023 after simmering tensions between the army and its rival paramilitary RSF escalated to fighting in the capital Khartoum and spread across the country.
The war has killed over 40,000 people and displaced over 10 million people, according to the latest estimates by the United Nations. Many have also been pushed to the brink of famine and suffer from disease outbreaks.
The fighting has recently intensified in the Kordofan and Darfur regions. The humanitarian crisis has deepened in these areas, with civilians facing blocked access to safe roads and struggling to obtain food and medical care.
Global humanitarian aid group Mercy Corps says the Kordofan region has become the epicenter of the ongoing war as fighting continues in North, South, and West Kordofan, limiting access to food, water, medical care and safe roads.
“In Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, our team describes a city under siege. Roads have been cut off, supply lines have collapsed, and residents are walking miles just to search for salt or matches,” Kadry Furany, the group's Sudan country director, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, intense fighting continues in the Darfur region, where famine-stricken displacement camps are repeatedly under attack.
The conflict has exacerbated the hunger situation, with UNICEF saying Thursday that there has been a 46% increase in the number of children diagnosed with malnutrition across Darfur between January and May 2025, compared to the same period last year.
The International Criminal Court believes that war crimes and crimes against humanity are ongoing in Sudan’s western Darfur region, the tribunal’s deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.
FILE - Soldiers arrive to the Allafah market, in an area recently recaptured by Sudan's army from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, in the Al Kalalah district, south of Khartoum, Sudan, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
