Government forces have entered South Kordofan’s capital, Kadugli, days after breaking a siege in nearby Dilling.
Sudan’s military says it has broken through a siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of the South Kordofan capital of Kadugli, marking its second major advance in less than a week.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader of the country, visited Sudan’s public television station in the city of Omdurman on Tuesday to assert that his forces had opened a supply route to the capital.
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“I have no other statement than to say to the Sudanese people, congratulations for the opening of the road to Kadugli,” he said. “Congratulations to our people in Kadugli for the arrival of the armed forces. The armed forces will reach anywhere in Sudan.”
Al-Burhan insisted that the military government of Sudan supports peace efforts but will not agree to a truce with the RSF, with which it has been fighting a vicious civil war since April 2023, while cities are under siege.
“There will be no truce that would strengthen the enemy. There will be no ceasefire that would allow this militia to stand on its feet again,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been blockading Kadugli, alongside the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North, since the start of the war.
The conflict has devastated the East African country, with many killed, millions displaced and hunger and illness rife in what has been branded the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations declared a famine in Kadugli in November, citing “months without reliable access to food or medical care”.
Similar conditions have been reported in the city of Dilling, located around 100km (62 mi) north, where the Sudanese military broke an RSF siege six days ago.
The two latest advances will allow the army to resupply and reinforce its troops in the Kordofan region, potentially allowing critical food and medicine to also flow to civilians, media’s Hiba Morgan reported from a displacement camp in al-Dabbah in Sudan’s Northern province.
“Now that the army has opened a supply route, markets will be reopened – eventually, not immediately,” Morgan said. “For now, people are saying this is quite a major achievement.”
After losing the capital Khartoum to Sudan’s army last March, the RSF shifted focus to pushing the government forces out of the Western Darfur region.
It took over the last Sudan Army stronghold of el-Fasher in October, and in the months since has also attempted to assert control in the central Kordofan region.
That saw the blockades of Dilling and Kadugli reinforced, and Sudan’s biggest oil field captured.
“I want to assure our people everywhere – in al-Geneina, in al-Tina – in any place, that the army will reach them, the armed forces will reach them,” al-Burhan said in his comments broadcast on Tuesday, referring to towns in the west of the country where fighting with the RSF is raging.
“The armed forces are supported by the Sudanese people and by everyone who believes that the Sudanese people have a [just] cause, defending their existence and their right to defend themselves and their country,” he added. “No power can stand in the way of these legitimate goals.”
More than 88,000 people have fled the Kordofan region since October, United Nations officials reported this week. Around 80 percent of Kadugli’s population – some 147,000 people – has evacuated to other parts of South Kordofan or elsewhere.
A total of 13.6 million people have been uprooted by the fighting, prompting the UN to deem Sudan the world’s largest displacement crisis.
