Fire damage to civilian areas in Kauda, South Kordofan, Sudan

CIR has documented the burning of civilian infrastructure across Kauda, South Kordofan, and at least five surrounding settlements between 2 and 16 May 2026, corroborated by satellite imagery, geolocated footage, and witness testimony.

Key findings

• CIR documented the burning of civilian infrastructure in the town of Kauda, South Kordofan, and five surrounding rural settlements from 2 to 16 May.
• Burn scars visible on satellite imagery began appearing and progressively expanding in the area from 2 to 16 May, indicating sustained violence over a two-week period. This is corroborated by verified footage showing smoke and fire damage, and witness testimony from secondary sources.
• The independent Sudan Doctors Network reported on 13 May, based on witness testimonies, that 61 civilians were killed in the attacks, including women and children. Witnesses reportedly described people with disabilities being left behind in burning buildings and residents being cut off from food and water. CIR could not independently verify these reports.
• The areas damaged were civilian in character, including a market, residential buildings, farmland, and settlements. The destruction of agricultural land poses serious long-term risks to food security and the ability of displaced communities to return.
• Independent media and civil society sources including Darfur24, Sudan Doctors Network, and Sudan War Monitor claimed that the attacks were conducted by forces affiliated with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). According to Darfur24, the violence followed an escalation in intercommunal tensions between local Atoro and Shwaya Nuba sub-groups, which SPLM-N forces were ordered to diffuse. Sudan War Monitor reported that these tensions escalated into an internal military mutiny when Atoro-aligned SPLM-N officers refused orders from the movement’s central command to stand down, triggering direct armed confrontation between mutinous fighters and forces loyal to commands.
• The SPLM-N denied its involvement in any human rights violations, claiming it instead deployed forces to reduce tensions that had already escalated into deadly clashes.
• A key underlying driver of the internal fracturing, according to ACLED is local Atoro opposition to the SPLM-N’s tactical alignment with the RSF, including grievances over alleged RSF mining and recruitment on Atoro land.

Fire damage impacting civilians in and around Kauda

Violent clashes in and around Kauda, South Kordofan, between 2 and 16 May resulted in the reported deaths of at least 61 civilians, the burning of residential and commercial buildings in Kauda and at least five surrounding rural settlements, as well as forced displacement. CIR corroborated the scale of the clashes based on verified footage, damage visible in satellite imagery, and witness testimony reported by secondary sources.

On 13 May, the Sudan Doctors Network, an independent volunteer medical organisation, published a statement on X, based on witness testimonies, describing the “direct and indiscriminate” targeting of civilians and “systematic” burning of residential and commercial infrastructure. The Network claimed 61 civilians were killed, including women and children. CIR was unable to independently verify this figure, due to a lack of footage showing casualties following the incidents.

Earlier reporting by Sudan Tribune on 9 May cited local testimonies describing the burning of homes and schools, looting of property, and forced displacement from Kauda since 12 March. The Nuba Mountains Media Executive Office reportedly warned that the acts may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. An unverified video posted on 10 May by Nuba Mountains, a page dedicated to sharing news and information from the region, showed displaced civilians from the Kauda area recounting their experiences. One woman stated that residents had been unable to access food or water, that people with disabilities and the sick had been left behind in houses, and that some had burned inside.

CIR corroborated these reports with satellite imagery and verified footage, documenting fire damage in Kauda’s town centre and at least five surrounding settlements and farmland areas between 2 May and 16 May 2026.

The earliest evidence of fire activity is visible on Planet satellite imagery, which shows a growing number of burn scars developing between 2 and 10 May over sparsely populated farmland approximately 1.5 kilometres (km) west of Kauda airport. Between 9 and 11 May, Planet imagery shows further burn scars appearing at a settlement approximately 4.5 km east of Kauda. By 13 May, fires appear to have reached the town centre; a video posted to a pro-SAF Telegram channel on 14 May, geolocated by CIR, shows active fires and smoke plumes beside buildings in Kauda’s central market [11.09325722, 30.56306885] (figure 1). Heat signature data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) confirmed the footage was filmed on 13 May.

Copernicus satellite imagery confirms the broader pattern, showing burn scars appearing in three locations near Kauda’s market area between 9 and 16 May.

A separate video posted to a pro-SAF Telegram channel on 10 May, geolocated by CIR to a rural settlement approximately 2.5 km west of Kauda airport [11.05209323,30.5389192], shows a house already damaged by fire. This is consistent with burn scars visible in Copernicus imagery from the same period.

Further Copernicus imagery from 16 May shows burn scars extending to two additional settlements in rural Kauda [11.08891, 30.53684] [11.08216, 30.53602], located approximately 3 km west from the village centre of Kauda and 1.5 km east of a town called Lwere.

Attribution: SPLM-N

Darfur24, an independent Sudanese news outlet focused on conflict and human rights reporting, and the Sudan Doctors Network, claimed that the attacks on civilians near Kauda during the first two weeks of May were carried out by forces affiliated with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu[1]. According to Darfur24, the violence started following an escalation of tensions between armed elements from the local Atoro[2] and Shwaya[3] Nuba sub-groups. This included disputes over tribal border demarcation and land ownership in the Debi area near Kauda, an area under SPLM-N influence. The SPLM-N reportedly deployed forces to separate the two sides and ordered military leaders from both tribes to report to the General Staff for investigation. According to a statement from the SPLM-N, reported by Darfur 24, officers from the Shawaya tribe complied, while officers from the Atoro tribe refused. Sudan War Monitor, an independent Sudan-focused conflict analysis and monitoring platform, reported that this refusal developed into a military mutiny, drawing SPLM-N forces loyal to al-Hilu into direct armed confrontation with mutinous Atoro-aligned fighters. The Sudan Doctors Network claimed that the SPLM-N was responsible for “extrajudicial killings, acts of slaughter, and the burning of homes and shops, alongside widespread looting of property”.

The SPLM-N itself, cited by Sudan Tribune on 9 May 2026, denied its involvement in any human rights violations. The group claimed that the violence during the first two weeks of May 2026 was a continuation of unresolved intercommunal conflict between the Atoro and Shwaya tribes that had already escalated into deadly clashes before SPLM-N forces arrived to intervene. The SPLM-N also stated that mutinous Atoro-aligned fighters engaged in violence against other SPLM-N fighters.

The SPLM-N has been active since 2011, emerging from elements of the former Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) that remained active in Sudan, after South Sudan gained independence. The group primarily operates in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, where it has maintained long-running insurgencies against the Sudanese state. Kauda is the historic and symbolic heartland of the SPLM-N, whose membership is drawn primarily from the Nuba people, an indigenous, non-Arab group inhabiting the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan who have faced decades of marginalisation and forced displacement under successive governments in Khartoum. Since the outbreak of the current Sudan conflict in April 2023, SPLM-N has generally aligned itself politically and militarily with the RSF, although the nature and extent of cooperation have varied over time.

According to ACLED, a significant driver of the current internal fracturing in Kauda is the strong opposition within the local Atoro community to the SPLM-N’s tactical alliance with the RSF. The RSF traces its origins to the Arab Janjaweed militias, which fought alongside Sudanese government forces during conflicts in Darfur and later in South Kordofan during the 2000s and 2010s. During these campaigns, Nuba communities were subjected to repeated aerial bombardments, displacement, and attacks by government-aligned forces and allied militias. This contributed to longstanding hostility within many Nuba groups toward the Janjaweed and later the RSF. ACLED notes that the SPLM-N’s perceived accommodation of RSF interests has provoked strong opposition to the group within local Atoro communities, particularly regarding alleged RSF mining activity and recruitment efforts on Atoro land.

Patterns of destruction through fire

The destruction of civilian infrastructure in central Kauda and at least five surrounding villages is consistent with wider patterns of destruction across Sudan due to conflict-related fires, particularly in the presence of RSF-allied forces.

The geographical spread of the burn scars in and around Kauda is wide, with damage documented not only in the central market of Kauda but also across at least five outlying locations spanning several kilometres in multiple directions. This distribution is inconsistent with an isolated or accidental fire, and instead suggestive of a wider campaign across the area. The temporal evidence reinforces this: burn scars appear and expand progressively in the area between 2 and 16 May across different sites, indicating sustained fire activity over two weeks.

The civilian nature of what was burned further underscores the impact on local populations. The impacted locations include a market, residential buildings, farmland, and surrounding settlements – all civilian in character. The destruction of agricultural land in particular carries long-term consequences for food security and the viability of return for displaced communities.

This pattern of conduct mirrors tactics reported in other areas of Sudan, where CIR has documented the destruction of civilian settlements due to conflict-related fires.

[1] Abdel Aziz al Hilu is the lead commander for the non-state armed force the SPLM-N. He once served as deputy governor for South Kordofan under the Unity government. After losing a bid to become governor in 2011, he vowed to lead an insurgency against the government in Khartoum.

[2] The Atoro tribe are an ethnic group indigenous to the Nuba Mountains inhabiting areas around Kuartal, Zayd, and Kauda.

[3] The Shwaya tribe are an ethnic group indigenous to the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, often living in close proximity to the Atoro people.