Rapid Support Forces paramilitary fighters attacked three villages near Bara in Sudan’s North Kordofan state on Thursday, killing at least 30 civilians on the first day of Eid al-Adha. On Friday, the RSF launched a second assault on the same area as a communications blackout was imposed, limiting the flow of information from one of the world’s most under-reported conflict zones.
At least 30 civilians were killed on Thursday when Rapid Support Forces attacked several villages near the town of Bara in North Kordofan state, according to multiple civilian sources and a statement from a local tribal union.
The General Union of Dar Hamid Tribe Regions said approximately 20 RSF combat vehicles attacked the villages of Al-Murra, Um Saadoun al-Sharif, and Al-Radha in West Bara locality, resulting in the deaths of more than 30 civilians. The attack took place on Thursday — the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most significant religious observance in the Islamic calendar. The Cairo-based Sudan Doctors Network, which monitors violence across the war, confirmed the attack, describing it as “a new crime targeting unarmed civilians in areas with no military presence.”
The following day, the RSF did not withdraw.
Elements of the RSF on Friday launched fresh assaults on several villages west of Bara in North Kordofan State, following the devastating raid the previous day. Local sources told Sudan Tribune that RSF units renewed their assault on Al-Murrah town amid a complete communications blackout. Paramilitary forces reportedly confiscated Starlink satellite internet devices used by residents, severely limiting the flow of information and hampering coordination from the area.
What Is Happening in Bara and North Kordofan
Bara — the second-largest city in North Kordofan — has changed hands between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF during the conflict and is currently under RSF control. RSF forces have been active across several localities and towns in North Kordofan, though the army and its allied forces continue to hold El Obeid, the state capital.
The targeting of villages west of Bara fits a pattern that has characterised RSF operations across Sudan’s Kordofan and Darfur regions throughout the conflict: attacks on civilian populations living in areas outside SAF control, with the stated or implied objective of establishing territorial dominance and eliminating communities that could support opposing forces or tribal militias.
The deliberate confiscation of Starlink devices during Friday’s assault adds a dimension that goes beyond immediate physical violence. By removing satellite internet access from the affected villages, RSF forces have severed the primary means by which residents, humanitarian workers, and journalists communicate with the outside world. It is a tactic that has been used before in Sudan’s conflict — and its effect is to impose an information blackout that reduces accountability and limits the international response.
The General Union of the Dar Hamid Tribe warned that the situation remains tense and could escalate further. It called on Dar Hamid members to mobilise to protect the stricken villages. The call for tribal mobilisation — a response born of the absence of any other protective force — introduces the risk of further escalation as communities attempt to defend themselves without organised military backing.
Sudan’s Civil War: The Scale the Numbers Cannot Capture
Sudan’s civil war began on April 15, 2023, when fighting erupted in Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces — a paramilitary group that had grown out of the Janjaweed militias responsible for atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s. What began as a power struggle between two military factions has become one of the largest and most devastating humanitarian catastrophes in the world.
The statistics are overwhelming in scale:
More than 150,000 people have been killed in the conflict since April 2023, according to estimates that most humanitarian researchers consider conservative given the limited access for monitoring in affected areas. More than 13 million people have been displaced — the largest displacement crisis on earth, surpassing even Ukraine in numbers. More than 25 million people — more than half of Sudan’s population — are facing acute food insecurity. Parts of Sudan, including areas of North Darfur and Kordofan, have been formally assessed as being in famine.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission has warned that the conflict in the Kordofans is on a trajectory that could amount to genocide, putting civilian populations at extreme risk. Since October the RSF has escalated its attacks on the Kordofans, perpetrating air and drone strikes that have hit civilians and civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities and schools.
The Pattern of Targeted Civilian Attacks
Thursday’s attack on villages near Bara is not an isolated incident. It is the continuation of a documented pattern.
In one attack in early December 2025, RSF drones reportedly struck a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi, South Kordofan, killing at least 114 people, including 63 children.
The UN Security Council in February 2026 denounced repeated drone attacks against non-combatants, civilian facilities, and humanitarian workers, including “multiple attacks impacting” the World Food Programme. The Council expressed alarm over repeated drone attacks against civilians, civilian infrastructure and humanitarian workers.
The Sudan Doctors Network — one of the few organisations with consistent capacity to document casualties across the conflict — has maintained a record of attacks throughout the war. Its documentation reveals a systematic pattern: villages with no military presence attacked by RSF vehicle convoys or drone strikes; elderly people and women among the dead; civilian infrastructure — hospitals, schools, water points — destroyed; food convoys and humanitarian aid trucks targeted.
In a statement issued Friday, the Sudanese Doctors Network condemned what it described as a “massacre” perpetrated by the RSF in Al-Murrah and surrounding villages, strongly denouncing the deliberate targeting of unarmed populations in their homes. The state government of North Kordofan issued a statement strongly condemning “the heinous crimes and violations committed by the rebel Rapid Support Forces militia against defenseless citizens in the Al-Murrah area,” noting that preliminary statistics indicate a high number of dead and wounded.
The International Community’s Response — and Its Limits
The United Nations Security Council has condemned RSF attacks on multiple occasions. The African Union has convened mediation processes. Various countries have offered to host peace talks. None of it has produced a ceasefire, a reduction in violence, or meaningful accountability for documented atrocities.
The fundamental problem is not a lack of condemnation. It is a lack of consequences. The RSF, which is substantially backed by the United Arab Emirates — a relationship that has been documented by UN experts, investigative journalists, and Western governments — has continued to receive military and financial support despite the scale of documented atrocities. The UAE’s role has created a diplomatic complication that has prevented the international response from generating the pressure that might otherwise be brought to bear.
Sudan’s conflict has also suffered from a sustained deficit of international attention. The Iran war, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, tensions over Taiwan, and the domestic political crises of major Western democracies have consumed the attention and diplomatic resources that might otherwise be directed at stopping a conflict that, by most measures of humanitarian impact, dwarfs many of the crises that do dominate global headlines.
What Happens Next
The situation in villages west of Bara remains deeply uncertain. The communications blackout imposed by the RSF limits what outside observers can know about conditions on the ground. Tribal fighters have been called to mobilise, raising the prospect of intensified fighting in an area already devastated by Thursday’s attack.
At the broader level, Sudan’s civil war shows no sign of approaching resolution. The SAF and RSF remain militarily deadlocked across much of the country. Famine is spreading. Displacement continues. And the international mechanisms that exist to respond to crises of this scale — the UN Security Council, the African Union, bilateral pressure from major powers — have not produced the collective action that the scale of the crisis demands.
For the people of Al-Murra, Um Saadoun al-Sharif, and Al-Radha, what happens next is more immediate and more terrible: rebuilding after the dead are buried, in a conflict that began three years ago and has produced nothing but loss.
LoudFact.com is an independent global news and explainer platform. This report is based on reporting from Sudan Tribune, Al Jazeera, the Sudan Doctors Network, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as of May 29, 2026.
