Sudan in January 2026: the most important developments in security
In January 2026, the war in Sudan passed 1,000 days. The most reported event was on 26 and 27 January, when the army entered a South Kordofan city and said it had broken a two-year siege by the paramilitary RSF.
Drone strikes marked much of the month. The army intercepted an RSF drone attack on a major dam and military sites in the north. RSF drones killed 10 people, seven of them children, in El-Obeid, killed 10 civilians in the southeast, and struck the eastern city of Sinja. On 29 January dozens were killed in an RSF drone attack in South Kordofan, and on 31 January drones targeted an encircled city in Kordofan. Satellite images showed the RSF nearing a siege of El-Obeid.
In Darfur, a relief group reported more than 100 civilians killed and thousands displaced in attacks on villages, and witnesses said the RSF was abducting children.
On the political side of the fighting, army chief Burhan said peace was impossible without the RSF's defeat, and the army moved to renew its effort to retake Kordofan and Darfur. Sudan signed a $1.5 billion deal for Pakistani attack aircraft and drones. The EU sanctioned Sudanese militia leaders.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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