Forcible Recruitment Sparks Unrest in Nuba Mountains

SPLM-N and RSF bolster manpower as Kordofan becomes main war theater

Conscription campaigns by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have triggered unrest, violence, and dissent in parts of the Nuba Mountains of Sudan’s South Kordofan State.

The mass conscription coincides with a phase of increased military and political cooperation between the SPLM-N and the RSF, which together formed the Tasis Alliance and the Government of Peace and Unity. The alliance claims to be the legitimate national government of Sudan, controlling Darfur, West Kordofan, and parts of South and North Kordofan.

According to local news media reports and civil society, a group of about 70 gunmen on motorcycles, belonging to the RSF and SPLM-N, entered Tibsa village and market in Abbasiya Locality on Saturday, November 22, 2025. They rounded up hundreds of men and transported them to Moreib, an area on the northern edge of SPLM-N-controlled territory.