Days after tensions rose along Sudan’s western border with Chad, the war’s fallout has edged closer to its eastern frontier with Ethiopia.
Fighting has intensified in Blue Nile state, where the army said it shot down drones that came from the direction of Ethiopian territory. The Rapid Support Forces and its allies also said they had seized strategic positions in the border state.
The developments bring two of Sudan’s neighbors — Chad to the west and Ethiopia to the east — increasingly close to a war now in its fourth year. They have also fueled fears that expanding military operations near the borders could increase the risk of regional spillover.
N’Djamena raised its alert level along the Sudanese border after accusing the Sudanese army of carrying out a strike inside Chad that targeted a vehicle convoy. Khartoum rejected holding the army responsible without an independent investigation.
Advance in Blue Nile
On the eastern front, the RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, said they seized the Sirkam and Bakori bases near the Ethiopian border after fierce fighting with the army.
RSF spokesperson al-Fateh Qurashi said forces from the Sudan Founding Alliance, known as Tasis, captured the two bases, inflicted losses on the army and its allied forces, and seized combat vehicles, tanks, weapons and ammunition.
The RSF released videos that it said showed its fighters inside the army’s Sirkam military base. Its full account and the scale of the reported losses could not be independently verified.
Local sources, however, said the army had repelled an attack on Bakori. Control of the area remained disputed, with no detailed army statement clarifying the situation on the ground.
Sirkam and Bakori are militarily important because of their location on routes that could allow attacking forces to push north towards Damazin, the capital and political, military and administrative center of the Blue Nile region.
The escalation came a day after the army said it shot down what it described as a “hostile strategic drone” that entered from the direction of Ethiopian territory. It said the aircraft was the third drone it had downed in less than a week.
No independent investigation has established where the drones were launched or who operated them.
The RSF and its ally, the SPLM-N, seized the strategic areas of Kurmuk and Geissan on the Ethiopian border in early August. The advance triggered large waves of displacement and made the Blue Nile one of the war’s most active fronts.
Drone Strikes Kill Civilians
At least eight people were killed and dozens of civilians wounded in two drone attacks in the Sharu area, north of Sodari locality in North Kordofan state, as fighting continued in Blue Nile.
Emergency Lawyers, a group that documents wartime violations, said a drone targeted civilians before striking again as people tried to help the wounded. Four civilian vehicles were also destroyed.
The group did not identify who was responsible. Neither the army nor the RSF commented.
Emergency Lawyers called for an independent investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable. It said the targeted area was civilian and had no visible military presence.
Drone use in the war has risen sharply in recent months. Strikes have hit military positions, civilian areas, and energy and water facilities, particularly in the Kordofan region.
The shift in fighting between Sudan’s western border with Chad and its southeastern frontier with Ethiopia underscores the war’s widening geographical reach.
It has also raised fears that border areas could turn from routes for supplies and displaced people into battlefields, increasing friction with neighboring countries.
