Sudan Army Seizes Hamrat al-Wiz in North Kordofan Push

Sudanese army and allied forces seized the town of Hamrat al-Wiz in North Kordofan on Sunday, driving out the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and tightening control over a critical supply corridor linking central Sudan with the west.

"The army, the Joint Force, and Special Task units have liberated Hamrat al-Wiz and expelled the RSF," field commander Malik al-Burof said in a video filmed outside the town's captured police headquarters, pledging that troops would advance towards the group's remaining footholds in the region.

The town, in the Jabra al-Sheikh locality, extends the army's defensive perimeter around Jabra al-Sheikh and Bara and strengthens protection of the Export Road, one of the main routes connecting North Kordofan with Khartoum. The advance builds on a swift offensive launched in late July, when government forces recaptured large areas, secured the Export Road and pushed RSF fighters towards Umm Badr, Sodari, Hamrat al-Sheikh and al-Mazroub, closer to Darfur's borders.

The capture signals a shift in the operation's logic: from securing the highway itself to building a wider security belt around it, so the road does not remain an isolated corridor vulnerable to infiltration. In a war spanning vast distances, roads carry not only civilians and goods but troops, equipment and the supply lines that keep positions connected to rear areas. Military sources said units deployed across several areas after taking the town, with heavy reinforcements moving through Jabra al-Sheikh and Bara as the army prepares to push towards Sodari, one of North Kordofan's largest localities. The ground offensive has been backed by near-daily drone strikes on RSF convoys and mobile units across the state's west.

The loss of Hamrat al-Wiz alone does not mark a fundamental shift in the war's balance; the RSF retains extensive room to operate in western Sudan, and captured towns can change hands if new lines are not defended and supplied. But if the army holds this line and extends it to Sodari, North Kordofan will be more firmly tied to army-held central Sudan  and the RSF's room for manoeuvre between Kordofan and Darfur will keep shrinking.