- Underpinning attacks by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) of Abdel Aziz al Hilu on Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and attempts to claim territory is a drive to secure self-sufficiency in the face of concerns about security and the viability of the state.
- A larger appeal by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to Arab tribes has driven many South Kordofan fighters from Arab-identifying tribes, historically part of the Islamist Popular Defence Forces (PDF), to fight for the better-resourced RSF.
- While the SPLA-N has sought to take advantage of SAF’s preoccupation with the RSF and has captured several outlying garrisons, it has been unable to take control of large towns such as Dilling and Kadugli.
- Fighting in South Kordofan and the blockading of key arterial roads leading in and out of the state has dramatically exacerbated an existing food and medicine crisis, particularly in the western sector of the state, while increasing scarcity of all basic commodities.
- The manifestation of the national conflict at both the state and local level in South Kordofan, combined with pressure on communities to take sides in the war, is tearing at the fragile social fabric that will not be easily repaired.
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