A conservative classification would treat the Kadu languages as an independent family.

[1] Blench (2006) notes that Kadu languages share similarities with multiple African language phyla, including Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan, suggesting a complex history of linguistic convergence and contact.

[2] However, more recently, Blench states that Kadu is almost certainly Nilo-Saharan, with its closest relationship being with Eastern Sudanic.

However, most other languages of the Nuba Mountains, Darfur, and the Sudan-Ethiopia border region have verb-final word order.

Keiga Kamda, Tulishi Damba, Kadugli Miri Katcha, Tuna Kanga, Kufa, Kursi, Lima, Shororo Krongo-Abdullah, Tumma Krongo-Tabanya Kurondi, Talasa, Tumtum Dafalla (2000) compares 179 cognates in Kadugli, Kamda, Kanga, Katcha, Keiga, Kufa, Miri, Shororo-Kursi, and Tulishi.