Sudan Nashra: Seasonal rains threaten to deepen crisis in Blue Nile’s displacement camps | Khartoum orders universities back to war-damaged campuses | RSF-led govt holds 1st secondary school exams | Dozens killed in North Kordofan as military, RSF step up drone strikes | Key bridges destroyed in Kordofan, Darfur, threatening aid routes

Subscribe to our Lens on Sudan newsletter here. Families are surviving on one meager meal a day, unsafe water, little to no medicine and in tents pieced together from scraps at the Karama displacement camps in Blue Nile State. Now, with the onset of the rainy season, thousands of families across the camps and the sprawling settlements that have emerged around them are facing a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis after months of fighting forced them out of their homes in the Kurmuk and Geisan localities. Volunteers and families stepped in where regional authorities and aid agencies failed to, pitching tents, building toilets and operating charity kitchens as displacement surged beyond the capacity of existing camps. But food stocks are running out, disease is spreading and basic services remain severely inadequate, according to residents, medical sources, volunteers and government officials who spoke to Mada Masr. The arrival of the rainy season threatens to compound those hardships. Many of the makeshift tents set up on empty land around the camps stand in seasonal flood channels and low ground. Residents say the first showers have already begun surrounding them with water.  Volunteers and displaced people who spoke to Mada Masr urged authorities and aid agencies to act fast and move residents to higher ground before the rains intensify. While displaced communities in Blue Nile brace for a potential humanitarian disaster, Sudan’s rival governments continue to compete over the symbols of statehood. The latest flashpoint is education. Under directives from Prime Minister Kamel Idris, the government ordered universities displaced by the war to return to their original campuses within two months. University officials and a student welfare source say the deadline ignores the realities facing institutions whose campuses have been looted, damaged and stripped of basic services, with no adequate budgets for rehabilitation. According to two sources close to the Cabinet, university presidents and syndicate figures have begun lobbying for a postponement, warning that neither campuses nor surrounding communities are prepared for a mass return of students and staff. Their concerns are shared by officials in several service ministries, who fear the move could place additional strain on already fragile electricity, water and supply networks in military-held areas receiving returnees, the sources said. As has become the pattern, the Tasis-led parallel government followed Khartoum’s order with an education initiative of its own. RSF commander and head of the Tasis presidential council Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo announced the launch of secondary school exams in RSF-held areas across Darfur and parts of Kordofan — the first such exams to be organized and administered by the parallel government. Senior Tasis officials who spoke to Mada Masr presented the exams as a humanitarian necessity for students cut off from formal education. Information Minister Khaled Danaa said their government is seeking recognition for the certificates and views the continuation of education as part of broader recovery efforts in areas under its control.  But officials in Darfur dismissed the initiative as nothing more than a political performance aimed at projecting statehood. A senior education official in Central Darfur argued that the step lacked both the security conditions needed for broad participation and the educational foundations required after years of interrupted schooling, pointing to weak turnout as evidence. A source close to the military leadership argued that the Tasis-mandated exams would carry no significance and the resulting certificates would not be recognized at universities inside or outside Sudan. The initiative has also exposed divisions within the RSF camp itself. According to a source familiar with internal discussions and formerly affiliated with the paramilitary group, senior commanders regard attempts to replicate federal institutions as “a waste of time,” arguing that battlefield victories must come before administrative projects. On the battlefront, civilians in both military and RSF-held areas paid the highest price for this week’s combat escalation, and conditions are bound to deteriorate further after drone strikes targeted critical crossings used not only for military resupply but also for the movement of aid and goods. North Kordofan’s capital, Obeid, has come under repeated RSF drone attacks since Saturday. Strikes hit neighborhoods, a funeral procession and a fuel station, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens, according to residents, officials and medical sources in the city. RSF-held areas in the state also came under drone strikes that killed at least 15 people. The deadliest attack occurred on Monday when a drone struck the Abu Zaima market in the Hamra al-Sheikh locality during peak hours, according to a relative of one of the victims. The market strike came after a string of attacks across the area over less than 24 hours. As casualties mounted, both sides also targeted infrastructure critical to civilian life. The United Nations warned this week that attacks on key bridges could severely disrupt humanitarian access as seasonal rains render alternative routes difficult to use. In South Kordofan, two bridges on the vital Dalang-Kadugli road were destroyed on Sunday, according to a military source. The source said the timing was deliberate, coinciding with the onset of the rainy season and troop buildup east and west of Kadugli that may signal preparations for a new siege. A day later, a drone strike destroyed the strategic Ardamata Bridge east of Geneina in RSF-held West Darfur, according to a former local official. The UN described the bridge as a critical gateway linking Geneina to border areas with Chad and a major route for humanitarian and commercial supplies entering Darfur. The former official added that it also served as a key crossing for RSF military supplies moving from Chad into Darfur and Kordofan. *** Seasonal rains threaten to deepen crisis in Blue Nile’s displacement camps A woman walks with her baby inside one of the displacement camps in Blue Nile, June 5. Courtesy: @AsharqNOW via X. Across the Karama network of displacement camps and the sprawling settlements that have grown around them in Blue Nile, displaced people described to Mada Masr a humanitarian catastrophe they have been forced to endure after fighting across the state turned their hometowns into battlefields. Unable to meet the growing needs, the government has increasingly relied on local communities to fill the gap while international assistance remains limited. But community resources are reaching their limits as displacement continues to swell. Food is running low, access to clean water remains scarce and overcrowding is accelerating the spread of disease, volunteers, medical sources and government officials told Mada Masr. And now, with the first rains of the season, residents and volunteers warn that many of the makeshift shelters built on low ground are facing an imminent flood risk, threatening to turn an already dire humanitarian situation into yet another disaster. The crisis has steadily deepened since fighting swept through Kurmuk and Geisan earlier this year, as the RSF and the allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (Abdel Aziz al-Hilu faction) advanced across the sensitive border region. Waves of displaced people poured into camps south of the state capital, Damazin. Existing facilities were pushed far beyond capacity, prompting authorities to open additional camps and shelter sites to absorb the influx. With every new site, however, already scarce resources have been stretched even thinner. The strain is most visible in the camps’ deteriorating health conditions. A senior medical source involved in emergency planning and disease monitoring at the Damazin Teaching Hospital — the region’s main referral facility — said the situation in the Karama camps has moved beyond the scope of a routine humanitarian response as thousands lack access to clean water, sanitation facilities and medical care.  The hospital is receiving dozens of bilharzia cases each day, the source said, warning of an escalating outbreak driven by displaced residents’ reliance on untreated river water for drinking and stagnant ponds for bathing. Medical screenings conducted among children in the camps have also revealed a sharp rise in skin infections and rashes linked to unhygienic conditions and shortages of basic supplies. With the rainy season now underway, the risks are expected to grow, they said. The absence of permanent clinics and severe shortages of medicines could leave camp residents vulnerable to outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever and acute watery diarrhea, the source warned. Hundreds of cases of acute malnutrition have already been documented among children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers as many families survive on a single meal a day, they added, a condition that makes them even more vulnerable to disease outbreaks. For Halima Ismail, who fled Dim Mansour in the Kurmuk locality with her family and now lives in Karama 3, those risks are inescapable.  “My three children have developed severe skin rashes and constant fevers because of the contaminated water and mosquitoes,” she told Mada Masr. “We are forced to drink unsafe water from nearby ponds, and when someone falls sick, we can’t find even a single Panadol tablet inside the camp. Going to the Damazin hospital costs money we don’t have after losing everything while fleeing the shelling.” A human rights field researcher affiliated with an independent organization monitoring displacement and protection issues in Blue Nile said the camps also face growing protection risks, particularly for women and children. Among the displaced are dozens of unaccompanied minors who were separated from their families while fleeing Kurmuk, Dim Mansour, Khor al-Bodi and Geisan in recent months, they said. The researcher also warned of serious risks facing women and girls in the overcrowded camps, citing the lack of lighting after dark, inadequate protection measures and flimsy tents made from fabric scraps and other improvised materials. Menstrual hygiene supplies are scarce, while reproductive health and maternity services are almost non-existent, according to the source.  Nadia Yaagub, a 20-year-old resident of Karama 4, described what she called “daily unbearable hell.” “The camp is plunged into darkness as soon as the sun goes down,” she told Mada Masr. “There are no gates and no guards protecting the shelters. Women and girls live in constant fear of harassment and assault. Even walking to the distant toilets at night has become a dangerous risk we try to avoid. On top of that, the most basic women’s hygiene supplies are unavailable.” The conditions amount to what the researcher described as a “silent violation” of the rights of some of the camps’ most vulnerable residents. Regional authorities acknowledged the scale of the crisis, but said they lack the resources to respond adequately. A senior official at the Blue Nile government’s Social Welfare and Development Ministry, which manages displacement issues in coordination with the Humanitarian Aid Commission, described a severe humanitarian gap in the camps, blaming limited intervention by international organizations and UN agencies. According to the official, the ministry has expanded and designated camp sites to accommodate successive waves of displacement. Yet the influx has far outpaced available resources. Karama 1 alone is estimated to host between 10,000 and 15,000 displaced people, while regional authorities lack the operational capacity to meet the growing needs of thousands of families across the camp network, they said. The official added that the ministry’s role has largely been reduced to coordinating logistics, facilitating temporary medical missions organized by institutions such as universities of health sciences and medicine, and working with the Education Ministry to ensure displaced students can take official examinations in Damazin. The official called for urgent international support, particularly for permanent shelter projects and improvements to basic services. Much of the response has fallen to local initiatives. A volunteer with the Damazin-based Kurmuk emergency room, a youth-led crisis response network operating in the Karama camps, said community groups and both national and international organizations such as the Sudan Development Call Organization-Nidaa and Human Appeal have shouldered much of the responsibility for keeping the camps functioning, amid what they described as the absence of meaningful support from the government. According to the volunteer, the most urgent challenge facing the camps remains access to water and sanitation. Despite hosting thousands of families, Karama 3 has only 20 temporary toilets, all built by volunteer initiatives. The shortage has forced many residents to relieve themselves in open areas, contaminating the surrounding land and water sources, and further increasing the risk of disease outbreaks. Charity kitchens operated by the emergency room face equally severe constraints, they added, with food stocks stretched so thin that most families receive only a single meal a day. “Children cry from hunger throughout the day,” Osman Tiyo, a tribal elder displaced from Khor al-Bodi and now living in Karama 1 told Mada Masr. “We survive on one meal provided by volunteers, usually boiled wheat or asida that barely stave off hunger.”  The onset of the rainy season threatens to compound every hardship. The volunteer said that many of the makeshift shelters set up around the camps have been built in low-lying areas and seasonal flood channels. The sites were among the few open spaces available for newly displaced families seeking to remain close to camp services, but they now face the risk of being inundated unless people are urgently relocated or provided with more durable shelters, the volunteer warned. Tiyo said the first signs of that danger are already visible. Despite all the hardship they are enduring, “the greatest disaster awaiting us is the rainy season. We pitched these makeshift tents on low ground, and with the first rains, water already began surrounding us,” he said. “If the government and aid organizations do not move us to higher ground before the rains intensify this month, the floods will sweep away our tattered tents and yet another humanitarian catastrophe will come down on our heads,” Tiyo warned. *** Khartoum orders universities back to damaged campuses The University of Khartoum’s main gate, June 3. Courtesy: @MG_Shater via X. Sudan’s government has ordered universities displaced by the war to return to their original campuses within two months, a move that has triggered opposition from university officials and concern within parts of the government that military-held areas are unprepared for an influx of students and staff. The order is part of a broader push by authorities to restore state institutions and signal a return to normalcy. Yet three higher education and student welfare officials told Mada Masr that campuses remain heavily damaged, student housing is largely unusable and basic services are already struggling to meet existing demand. The gap between the political ambitions and conditions on the ground has prompted university administrators and syndicate figures to lobby for more time, and sparked behind-the-scenes disagreement within state institutions over the government’s accelerated timetable, according to two sources close to the Cabinet. Issued under directives from Prime Minister Kamel Idris, the June 3 decision requires higher education institutions to close temporary teaching centers established during the war inside and outside Sudan and resume operations from their pre-war campuses. Universities that fail to complete the transition will be barred from admitting students during the 2026/27 academic year. A professor at the University of Khartoum called the decision “detached from reality,” noting that many university facilities suffered extensive destruction during the war, while basic services remain severely disrupted, making a safe return to in-person classes unfeasible at present. Beyond damaged infrastructure, the professor argued that faculty members themselves face mounting hardships. The value of salaries has been eroded by inflation and rising living costs, they said, while many lecturers lost their homes and possessions during the war. “How can a professor be expected to return and perform their duties when they lack even the minimum level of security and stability for themselves and their family?” they asked.  A source at Neelain University similarly pointed to major logistical and financial obstacles facing institutions attempting to comply with the directive. University budgets are insufficient to rehabilitate damaged and looted lecture halls, laboratories and libraries, they said. Apart from academic facilities, a senior official at the National Student Welfare Fund in Khartoum said more than 90 percent of student dormitories and residential facilities have sustained extensive structural damage and systematic looting, affecting furniture, sanitation systems and utility networks. Some facilities remain in unsafe areas, while others have been repurposed as shelters for displaced families or logistical centers, the official said. Restoring even minimum standards of student accommodation would require substantial funding and a significantly longer timeframe than the August deadline. While university administrations are caught between ministerial pressure and realities they cannot overcome in two months, the decision has also generated disagreement within government circles. According to a source familiar with internal Cabinet discussions, the return plan enjoys strong support from the Khartoum State government and sovereign authorities eager to demonstrate stability and accelerate the restoration of state institutions in military-held areas. At the same time, several service and economic ministries, including the ministries of energy and petroleum and trade, have expressed serious concerns about the practical consequences of a rapid return, the source said. Internal assessments circulated among government agencies warn that a sudden influx of students and university employees could sharply increase demand for essential goods while placing additional strain on already fragile electricity and water systems, raising the risk of service disruptions in areas receiving returnees. Amid these concerns, university presidents and professional syndicate figures have begun lobbying the Higher Education Ministry and the prime minister’s office to revise or postpone the decision, according to a source close to the Cabinet. In their appeals, they argue that educational institutions and government agencies need additional time to develop a realistic implementation plan, secure reconstruction funding and establish adequate security, housing and service provisions before any large-scale return takes place, according to the source. They warned that without such preparations, the policy risks creating a new administrative and humanitarian crisis, rather than demonstrating a successful return to normalcy, the source added. *** RSF-led government holds first secondary school exams RSF commander and head of the Tasis presidential council Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo observes the launch of exams at Al-Wahda Secondary School in Nyala, South Darfur, June 7. Courtesy: @PresCouncilSudan via Telegram. The back-and-forth over state functions continued this week, with the RSF-led parallel government rolling out an education initiative just days after the Higher Education Ministry’s return order to universities.  Speaking from a girls’ secondary school in Nyala on Sunday, RSF commander and head of the Tasis presidential council Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo announced the launch of secondary school exams in areas under RSF control across Darfur and parts of Kordofan — the first such exams to be organized and administered by the parallel government. Two senior Tasis officials who spoke to Mada Masr presented the exams as a humanitarian necessity for students cut off from formal education and said they are working to secure recognition for the resulting certificates, while officials in Darfur dismissed the initiative as a political performance aimed at projecting statehood. Inside the RSF camp, a source formerly affiliated with the group and informed of its internal discussions said the decision exposed divisions between civilian allies seeking to build parallel institutions and military commanders who view such efforts as a distraction from the battlefield. The initiative comes after three years in which the federal government worked to preserve its control over the Sudanese Certificate system. After losing much of Darfur to the RSF, the government repeatedly postponed secondary school exams before ultimately administering the delayed sessions only in military-held states and approved centers abroad. Students in RSF-controlled areas were largely excluded from that process, as taking the exams required traveling toward military-controlled territory, sometimes covering thousands of kilometers under severe security risks. This left thousands in Darfur and parts of Kordofan outside the national system. A senior official in the parallel government described the examinations as a constitutional obligation and an urgent humanitarian necessity for those students. The official said the administration would not have pursued a separate examination process had it not been for what they called the federal government’s “intransigence and politicization” of education, accusing Khartoum of denying students their right to sit for exams as “collective punishment” for people living in areas outside its control. But officials in Darfur dispute the viability of the project. A senior education official in Central Darfur argued that the initiative reflected a “petty political feud” between rival authorities rather than a genuine attempt to address students’ needs. The source pointed to weak turnout — just 83 students took the exams across the state out of thousands — and said the initiative lacked the security environment needed to allow participation and the educational groundwork required after years of interrupted schooling. For a former government official in Darfur, the move is “a leap into the dark and nothing more than a political pressure tactic aimed at extracting recognition from the federal government and the international community for a reality that the military machine alone failed to consolidate.” The question of priorities has also generated divisions within the RSF camp. A former RSF source familiar with internal discussions said the exams were championed by Tasis’s governor for the Darfur region, Al-Hadi Idris, Prime Minister Mohamed Hassan al-Taaishy and RSF-allied civilian groups seeking to demonstrate the capacity of the parallel administration to govern.  Not everyone in the coalition was convinced. According to the source, influential military commanders viewed efforts to “keep pace with the rival” and mirror the federal government’s political and service institutions as “futile and a waste of time.” The purely combat-oriented camp  insisted that establishing full military legitimacy and decisively winning battles on the ground should take precedence over complex administrative matters. Venturing into one of Khartoum’s closely guarded sovereign functions ultimately comes down to recognition. A source close to the military leadership dismissed the developments as insignificant from both a sovereign and diplomatic perspective, arguing that international and regional bodies — including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and Arab and African university associations — recognize only certificates issued by Sudan’s federal Education Ministry and official exam boards. What took place in Nyala, the source said, was a “farcical performance” orchestrated by Hemedti and his civilian allies to offset battlefield setbacks, adding that the examination papers would carry no weight in university admissions either inside or outside Sudan. However, Tasis says it is working to secure precisely that recognition. Information Minister and Tasis spokesperson Khaled Danaa told Mada Masr that the administration is in contact with higher education institutions and regional and international organizations to obtain accreditation for the certificates. He also said the administration has launched efforts to rehabilitate war-damaged educational institutions and sees support for the education sector as part of wider stabilization and recovery efforts. *** Military drones target RSF-held locality in North Kordofan At least 15 civilians were killed and dozens more wounded in a series of military drone strikes targeting the RSF-controlled Hamra al-Sheikh locality in North Kordofan from Sunday to Monday, a medical source and a relative of one of the victims told Mada Masr. The deadliest attack took place on Monday, when a drone struck the Abu Zaima market during peak hours, as residents gathered to buy daily necessities, the family member said. The medical source in the locality said the preliminary death toll from the attack stood at 11 civilians, most of whom died instantly from direct injuries to the head and chest. Medical staff in the area’s modest health center were overwhelmed by the sudden influx of dozens of wounded people suffering from shrapnel injuries, according to the source. The facility faces acute shortages of medical supplies and emergency materials needed to respond to an incident of that scale, the source explained. Several critically injured women and children had to be transferred to surgical centers outside the locality. The market strike came after a string of attacks across the area over less than 24 hours. According to the victim’s relative, earlier drone strikes hit the nearby villages of Khashkhasha and Bagariyat, killing two people and injuring five, while another strike targeting a civilian vehicle killed two more. The source said residents in the locality now live under the constant threat of drone attacks. Since May 28, five civilian transport vehicles have been targeted, leaving people afraid to travel, they added. *** RSF escalates drone attacks on Obeid, killing, injuring civilians At least 24 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a series of RSF drone attacks across North Kordofan State this week, with strikes hitting neighborhoods, a funeral procession, a fuel station and a civilian vehicle in Obeid and near Um Rawaba. The deadliest attacks hit Obeid in the early hours of Thursday, when drones struck the Matar and Mowazafin neighborhoods and areas surrounding the Fifth Infantry Division command. A medical source told Mada Masr that the strikes killed 15 people and injured more than 10, including several critical cases. Among the people killed were three members of the same family, the source said. In eastern Obeid’s Matar, a drone strike around 2 am destroyed several homes and killed civilians, four residents, including family members of the victims and an eyewitness, told Mada Masr.  The eyewitness said the drone returned after people gathered at the scene, carrying out a second strike that caused more casualties. Three residents said nine people were killed in the attack. The violence followed other drone strikes across the city this week. On Wednesday, the Sudan Doctors Network said a drone strike hit the Dalil cemetery during a funeral procession, killing four people and injuring seven. A North Kordofan government source also said a drone targeted a key fuel station in Obeid on Saturday, killing five people and injuring 12. The station sustained significant damage. The source described the attacks as part of a systematic campaign aimed at spreading fear, disrupting essential services and undermining the relative stability Obeid has recently experienced. Authorities were assessing the humanitarian and security implications of the escalation, they added. Around 150 km southeast of Obeid, in the Awamra village near Um Rawaba, an RSF drone struck a civilian vehicle on Monday night, killing two people instantly, a local activist said. *** Key bridges destroyed in Kordofan, Darfur, threatening aid routes The destruction of one of the bridges on the Dalang-Kadugli road in South Kordofan after a drone strike by the RSF and the allied SPLM-N (al-Hilu), June 7. Courtesy: Journalist Muzammil Abu Al-Qasim via Facebook. The destruction of key bridges in both military and RSF-controlled areas this week has raised alarm at the UN, which warned that the attacks threaten to cut off humanitarian access as the rainy season intensifies and restricts movement along alternative routes. In South Kordofan, drones operated by the RSF and the allied SPLM-N (al-Hilu) struck and destroyed two bridges on the Dalang-Kadugli road on Sunday, a military source told Mada Masr. The attacks appeared intended to isolate Kadugli by severing one of the city’s last supply corridors for food, medicine and humanitarian assistance, according to the source. The source said the timing was deliberate, coinciding with the onset of the rainy season, when dirt roads become increasingly difficult to travel, as well as troop buildup east and west of Kadugli that could signal preparations for a new siege. Footage circulated by activists and Sudanese media showed extensive damage to one of the concrete bridges. A day later, in RSF-held Darfur, a drone strike destroyed the strategic Ardamata Bridge east of Geneina, according to a former West Darfur official. The UN described the bridge as a critical gateway connecting Geneina to border areas with Chad and a major route for humanitarian and commercial supplies entering Darfur. The RSF-led Tasis government accused the military of carrying out the strike, warning that the destruction would hamper aid deliveries, trade activity and disrupt the agricultural planting season. The former official noted that the bridge served as an important crossing for RSF military supplies arriving from Chad and moving onward to other parts of Darfur and Kordofan.  Drones also struck a bridge on Monday in Geneina’s Nasim neighborhood, which hosts one of the RSF’s main positions in the city, the official added. However, they said the bridge primarily connected Geneina to the Ardamata area and carried far less strategic weight than the Ardamata crossing. The latter has become even more important since the nearby Kiga bridge collapsed during heavy rains two years ago, the official added. *** Three drones detected entering Omdurman airspace Three drones were detected approaching northern Omdurman in the capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday, according to a military source at the Wadi Sidna air base. Air defenses shot down one before it reached its target, while the other two crashed in an uninhabited area on the outskirts of the city, the source said. Three residents told Mada Masr they heard a powerful explosion across parts of Omdurman when the drones came down. No casualties or damage to infrastructure were reported, they added. The military subsequently tightened security measures across the city and stepped up aerial surveillance, the military source said, adding that authorities are looking into the source of the drones. *** Subscribe to our Lens on Sudan newsletter here.The post Sudan Nashra: Seasonal rains threaten to deepen crisis in Blue Nile’s displacement camps | Khartoum orders universities back to war-damaged campuses | RSF-led govt holds 1st secondary school exams | Dozens killed in North Kordofan as military, RSF step up drone strikes | Key bridges destroyed in Kordofan, Darfur, threatening aid routes first appeared on Mada Masr.