Sudan: South Kordofan Suffocates Under Siege and Shelling

Sudan Events – Agencies

Tensions in towns across Sudan’s South Kordofan State are escalating sharply, further aggravating an already dire humanitarian crisis. In the state capital, Kadugli, security breakdowns are on the rise, with increasing civilian killings at the hands of armed groups. Local authorities remain tight-lipped about the true extent of the deteriorating situation, which is slipping out of control and has driven hundreds of civilians to flee to safer areas.

Local sources reported on Sunday that forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), led by General Abdel Aziz Adam al-Hilu, launched intense artillery bombardments on several locations in Kadugli, injuring civilians, including women and children. The shelling also damaged a number of residential homes in neighborhoods near the city’s central market.

The market itself was subjected last week to widespread looting of grains and basic foodstuffs by certain militias, with no intervention from the authorities.

A Kadugli resident told Asharq Al-Awsat that food supplies had run out entirely, and prices had soared to exorbitant levels far beyond people’s means, amid the complete collapse of health and water services.

He added that the greatest challenge now facing Kadugli is the worsening lawlessness, with armed looters roaming freely, committing murders and assaults against unarmed civilians.

Fighting has reignited fiercely in large parts of South Kordofan in recent months, after the SPLM joined forces with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and other military factions within the Sudan Founding Alliance (Ta’sis).

According to the same sources, the humanitarian situation—marked by acute food shortages and worsening insecurity—is spiraling towards catastrophe, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians as military operations intensify.

Sudanese Minister of Culture and Information Khalid al-Eisaer urged the international community to “assume its humanitarian and moral responsibility to lift the siege on El-Fasher, North Darfur, and support a plan to open blocked roads to Kadugli and Dilling in South Kordofan.”

In a Facebook post, he called for firm action against the “criminal acts committed by the (RSF) in towns and villages across Kordofan and Darfur, which are paid for by innocent civilians,” criticizing what he described as “the disturbing international silence that deepens civilian suffering.”

Al-Eisaer added: “This double standard in addressing the crimes committed by RSF mercenaries is being paid for by the children, women, and elderly of Sudan.”

The suffocating siege on South Kordofan’s capital has created a severe humanitarian emergency due to extreme shortages of food and medicine.

Ta’sis forces now control almost all areas surrounding the towns of South Kordofan, imposing tight restrictions on trade and cutting off supply lines to the Sudanese army and allied armed factions trapped inside Kadugli.

The same sources reported that waves of displacement from Kadugli have begun, with civilians moving toward areas near the SPLM stronghold of Kauda in the Nuba Mountains.

Meanwhile, Mubarak Ardol, head of the Democratic Alliance for Social Justice in Sudan, issued an urgent humanitarian appeal to South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit to “take immediate measures, in coordination with aid organizations, to establish safe humanitarian corridors for delivering food and medical assistance to civilians in Kadugli and Dilling.”

In a post on X, Ardol said residents of Kadugli and Dilling are “suffering from severe hunger and the total collapse of healthcare services.”

He warned: “Only one week remains before this situation turns into a full-scale humanitarian disaster. These areas are on the brink of mass death from hunger, disease, and thirst—and with every passing hour, more lives are lost.”

Earlier, SPLM forces seized control of the towns of Karqal and Dashoul along the main road to Dilling, the second-largest city in the state, which is facing conditions similar to those in the state capital.