RSF Claims Capture Of Key Army Bases In Blue Nile

Ed Damazin, August 28, 2026 - The Rapid Support Forces said they captured two Sudanese army bases in Blue Nile state alongside allied Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North fighters, widening the war's southeastern front near the Ethiopian border.

The RSF said its joint force defeated the Sudanese Armed Forces at the Bakori and Surkum bases, seizing weapons and equipment and taking prisoners. The army did not immediately comment, and the battlefield claims could not be independently verified.

Bakori, in the Geissan area about 170 km southeast of Ed Damazin, is the headquarters of the army's 13th Infantry Brigade. Surkum, in the Kurmuk area more than 200 km southeast of Ed Damazin, functions as an advance outpost for nearby military positions in Sali.

The RSF-SPLM-N force, led locally by Joseph Touka, launched the assault early Friday after days of intensified ground combat and drone activity. Allied forces had already taken the border towns of Kurmuk and Geissan earlier this year as fighting spread through Blue Nile.

In neighboring South Kordofan, army forces repelled a separate RSF dawn assault on Tibsa near Abbasiya Tagali, pushing paramilitary fighters back toward Moreib after several hours of clashes. The developments point to a broadening conflict zone that threatens border stability, logistics routes and humanitarian access in Sudan's southeast.