Battles in Kordofan as Sudanese Army Announces Advances in Some Areas

A field source told Al Jazeera that the Sudanese army has taken control of the Hamadi area in South Kordofan State after battles with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

According to the source, this advance brings the army closer to the city of Al-Dibibat, which is a crossroads connecting the three Kordofan states.

Recently, clashes and fighting between the army and RSF have shifted to the Kordofan region in western-central Sudan, as the army seeks to gain control over the region neighboring Darfur, where RSF controls most of the states.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera Net’s correspondent in Khartoum, Abdul Raouf Taha, reported from field sources that the city of Al-Khowei in North Kordofan witnessed fierce fighting between the army and RSF on Tuesday evening. The clashes ended with the army regaining control of the city a few hours after RSF had entered it.

Wave of Arrests

Sources and eyewitnesses told Al Jazeera Net that RSF—after briefly entering Al-Khowei and forcing the army to withdraw to the city’s outskirts—carried out a wave of civilian arrests and killed a number of captured army soldiers.

The same sources stated that by sunset on Tuesday, the army launched a surprise counterattack, reclaiming the city of Al-Khowei and inflicting heavy losses on RSF forces, including destroying combat vehicles, capturing soldiers, and killing others.

In a press statement, the Joint Forces of the armed movements allied with the army claimed they had destroyed 800 combat vehicles and killed “hundreds” of RSF fighters in the battles in Al-Khowei.

On the other hand, RSF said in its own statement that it inflicted losses on the army and its allies in the battles in Al-Khowei, which is located about 100 kilometers from El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan.

Attacks and Clashes

Meanwhile, the Governor of Darfur and leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Minni Arko Minnawi, said that Sudanese army forces and the Joint Forces of the armed movements repelled another RSF attack on the city of Al-Khowei this morning.

A field source also told Al Jazeera that clashes broke out this morning between the army and RSF in the Al-Salha neighborhood in southern Omdurman.

The source stated that the clashes occurred near Omdurman Islamic University and lasted more than three hours, erupting at dawn following an RSF attempt to recapture the university campus, which had recently fallen under army control.

In a related context, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced on Wednesday that about 1,000 critically ill patients in the Darfur region are suffering from an almost complete lack of drinking water after artillery shelling destroyed a water tank at one of the hospitals.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the tank had been placed outside the Saudi Hospital—one of the few remaining operational hospitals in the city of El-Fasher, which has a population of around 2 million.

El-Fasher is the only capital of the five Darfur states not under RSF control. The city has been under siege by RSF since May 2024, and is continuously being bombarded and attacked on its outskirts.

In a statement, UNICEF said: “Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water tank in the Saudi Hospital compound in El-Fasher was destroyed by artillery fire, cutting off access to safe water for around 1,000 seriously ill patients.”

The agency added: “UNICEF continues to call on all parties to fulfill their obligations under international law and to cease all attacks on or near vital civilian infrastructure.”

Crown Prince’s Statement

Many Sudanese political leaders welcomed the announcement by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Gulf-American summit in Riyadh on Wednesday, affirming the Kingdom’s continued efforts to resolve the crisis in Sudan through the Jeddah platform, which is sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the United States. They viewed this as a renewed momentum toward achieving a comprehensive ceasefire in Sudan.

Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army and RSF have been engaged in a war that has left over 20,000 dead and around 15 million displaced and refugees, according to the United Nations and local authorities. However, a study by American universities estimated the number of deaths at around 130,000.