According to the Sudans Post, as of July 2025, Northern and River Nile states, previously considered relatively stable, risked increasingly being drawn into the armed conflict as the northern region faced RSF drone strikes, threats and military advances. As of November 2025, UNHCR described River Nile state as ‘relatively calm’,1196 albeit facing repeated drone attacks throughout the reference period, many of them targeting locations in Atbara city.1197 In its Sudan coverage published in March 2026, the Egyptian independent online newspaper Mada Masri stated that the ‘relatively secure’ situation in River Nile state enabled the local authorities to rebuild the manufacturing sector.1198
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UNHCR, External Update #113 Sudan Situation - November 2025, 9 February 2026, url, p. 3
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Mada Masr, Sudan Nashra: In cross-border offensive, RSF seizes Blue Nile’s Geisan, recaptures Kurmuk | Military repels major RSF attack on North Kordofan’s Gabra al-Sheikh | After clashes inside Kauda, SPLM-N-Otoro fighting spreads to nearby villages | Kordofan governor in RSF-led govt defects | Back-to-back Sudanese visits to Juba in mutual push to contain border, Abyei tensions, 14 August 2026, url; Dabanga, حرب المسيرات تتواصل .. قتلى وجرحى في نهر النيل والجزيرة وغرب كردفان [Drone war continues – Killed and injured persons in River Nile, Al Jazirah and West Kordofan], 7 January 2026, url; Sudan Tribune, Two civil defence members killed in drone attack on Atbara power station, 18 December 2025, url; BBC News, Sudan capital hit by drone attacks a day after RSF agrees to truce – reports, 7 November 2025, url; Sudan Tribune, RSF drone attacks cause blackout in north Sudan’s Atbara, 15 April 2025, url; Al Taghyeer, ولاية نهر النيل تصدر أمر طوارئ جديد بشأن حظر التجوال [River Nile issues new emergency order regarding curfews], 3 April 2025, url
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Mada Masr, Sudan Nashra: Blue Nile’s Kurmuk falls to RSF | Around 100 civilians killed in drone attacks attributed to military in Darfur | 5 killed in Central Darfur by Chadian forces, eyewitnesses say | Repercussions of war on Iran a ‘crisis multiplier’ for Sudan’s medicine supply, acute drug scarcity on the horizon, sources say, 26 March 2026, url