Sudanese army forces say they have recaptured the strategic city of Bara in North Kordofan, even as a surge in fighting across the wider Kordofan region has left at least 51 people dead and many more wounded, according to medical and local sources.

The battles underscore how Kordofan has become one of the most violent fronts in the war pitting the regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The region forms a vital corridor between RSF strongholds in Darfur to the west and army-controlled territory in the east, making every town along its highways a military prize and a civilian trap.

In South Kordofan, residents of Dilling described a city under relentless bombardment. Artillery shells and drone strikes pounded neighbourhoods throughout the day, flattening homes and sending families scrambling for cover. Staff at Dilling Hospital reported 28 people killed and 60 injured, including children and women, as wards overflowed with shrapnel and blast victims.

“Bombs have been falling since the morning and many homes have been destroyed,” one resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Dilling had endured a lengthy RSF siege before the army broke through earlier in the year, but the paramilitary group has continued to target the city, increasingly from the air.

In West Kordofan, a separate strike on the town of Al-Mojlad killed 18 people and wounded 25, according to a medic at the local hospital, who said the attack was blamed on the army. The incident highlights the growing use of drones and long-range fire by both sides, tactics that have repeatedly devastated civilian areas.

The army’s announcement that it has retaken Bara marks a potentially significant shift. The town sits on the main highway linking the capital Khartoum to El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, and had served as a key RSF staging ground for attempts to encircle El-Obeid. Control of Bara has changed hands multiple times, displacing tens of thousands of residents.

A local official reported a subsequent drone strike on a state prosecution building in El-Obeid, blaming the RSF. The attack reinforced fears that urban centres remain within range of aerial assaults despite shifting front lines.

Humanitarian agencies warn that hundreds of thousands of people across Kordofan are now on the brink of starvation. Nationwide, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and uprooted around 11 million people, driving what aid groups describe as one of the world’s gravest hunger and displacement crises.