Sudanese army drone strike kills key paramilitary commander in Kordofan
July 23, 2025 (ABU ZABAD, West Kordofan) – A Sudanese army drone strike killed a key commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in West Kordofan state on Wednesday, military sources said, a development that has reportedly sparked internal disputes within the group.
General Al-Taj Youssef Aboukadair, known as “Folgank,” was killed when the strike hit a gathering of his forces in the city of Abu Zabad, the sources said. Two other prominent RSF leaders in Folgank’s unit, Al-Sadiq Humaidan Hamoudi and Hussein Issa, were also killed.
The killing comes as the army’s air force has intensified strikes across the wider Kordofan region in recent weeks, with reports of dozens of civilian casualties in repeated bombings of cities including Bara, Al-Nuhud, and Al-Fulah.
The killing of a general in Sudan’s Kordofan region has sparked a storm of internal disputes and accusations within the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), even as its members mourned his death on Telegram.
According to videos posted on social media, a field commander accused internal intelligence moles of betraying Folgank by revealing his location to the army.
Folgank’s unit, “Group 13,” was heavily involved in major battles in the capital Khartoum early in the war, which began in April 2023. They participated in attacks on the army’s Signals Corps, Armoured Corps, and Central Reserve Police headquarters.
As the army gained ground in Khartoum in recent months, Folgank and his forces retreated to West Kordofan, basing themselves in the state capital, Al-Fulah. Military sources in the region told Sudan Tribune he was in charge of smuggling fuel, food, and military equipment from neighbouring South Sudan.
Folgank was one of four prominent RSF commanders from the Misseriya ethnic group. One of them, Hussein Barsham, was sanctioned by the European Union (EU) for alleged human rights violations.
Just two days before he was killed, Folgank appeared in a video surrounded by his fighters near the city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, threatening an invasion.