PORT SUDAN, Sudan, Jan 4, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - The power supply was cut on Sunday following drone strikes in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, the national electricity company said, as fighting raged in the oil-rich southern region.

For more than two years Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Kordofan the latest battleground after the RSF launched an offensive to seize the strategic region.

"El-Obeid power station... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply," the electricity company said.

Army-aligned forces had announced on Wednesday that they had retaken several cities south of El-Obeid from the RSF.

The Joint Forces -- an umbrella organisation of armed groups fighting alongside the army -- said they had "achieved sweeping field victories in the North Kordofan axis".

In a statement, the group affirmed "progress and control over several strategic areas, key among which are Kazqil, Hamadi, El-Rabash, Habila and El-Dubaibat".

It said those areas had been "cleared of rebel militia (RSF) elements after inflicting many losses on them in lives and military equipment".

A source in the Sudanese army told AFP that "this progress will open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling" -- a city in South Kordofan state controlled by the army and besieged by the RSF.

According to a UN-backed report, Dilling is in the throes of famine.

The army source added that government forces in Dalama to the south had cleared a path to Dilling and entered it.

Over the past week, some 15,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration.

Since the start of the war, more than 11 million people have been displaced internally and across Sudan's borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.