Sudan's RSF claims capture of key provincial capital south-east of Khartoum

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces says it has captured the provincial capital of a region in south-east Sudan, a claim that, if independently verified, hands the army a significant defeat on a new front.

“We have liberated the 17th Infantry Division from Singa,” the capital of Sennar state, the RSF announced on X.

The latest RSF breakthrough means the paramilitaries are tightening the noose around Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army, government and UN agencies are now based.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, Al Jazira state in the centre of the country, the vast western region of Darfur and much of Kordofan to the south.

Sennar state is already home to more than one million displaced Sudanese.

It connects central Sudan to the army-controlled south-east.

The reported capture of Singa comes 14 months into the war between the army and the RSF as the vast Afro-Arab nation teeters on the brink of famine.

The RSF’s claim was made late Saturday night, less than a week after the army said its troops and allied fighters repelled a small RSF contingent that tried to infiltrate Sennar, a historical city that once served as the country’s capital.

A Sudanese woman braids her sister's hair in their hut in the Rabang camp for internally displaced persons in Rabang, in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. AFP

Videos posted and widely shared online showed RSF fighters boasting about their capture of Singa, with some happily posing at the office of the provincial governor while cheering and chanting Allahu akbar.

Another video showed jubilant RSF fighters arriving in all-terrain vehicles at the headquarters in Singa of the army’s 17th Infantry Division that served as the city’s garrison. They fired celebratory rounds and smiled at the camera.

The gate of the division headquarters appeared unscathed by battle and there were unconfirmed reports that the troops there had left the city without a fight.

That claim could not be independently confirmed.

Brigadier General Nabil Abdalla, an army spokesman, said the military regained control of the facility housing the division and that fighting was still under way on Sunday morning, according to the Associated Press.

The RSF began its offensive on Sennar province earlier this week, attacking the village of Jebal Moya before moving to Singa.

Residents said the RSF had for a week been trying to capture Singa, where the sound of shelling and gunfire could be heard for days with intense fighting taking place on Friday and Saturday.

The fighting has prompted thousands to flee the city, heading to Blue Nile province to the south, according to the residents.

Children play in the Gash River, a seasonal lifeline that people rely on for agriculture and drinking, as it begins its flow through Kassala State, some 600 kilometres from the Sudanese capital Khartoum. AFP

The announcement of Singa’s capture was made while Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, the army chief, was visiting Sennar, 60 kilometres away, to inspect troops and allied forces there.

If independently confirmed, the capture of Singa would serve as a significant morale booster for the paramilitary after it failed to take control of the city of Al Fasher in Darfur, where it has been fighting the army and allied groups for close to two months.

The RSF has made territorial gains since the start of the war in April 2023, swiftly capturing large swathes of the capital, including the airport and the presidential palace, and later wresting control of most of Darfur and parts of Kordofan to the south.

In December, it dealt a serious blow to the army when it captured Wad Medani, capital of the strategic Al Gezira province south of Khartoum. Its fighters later seized most of the province, which is Sudan’s breadbasket.

The war has had a devastating impact on Sudan, displacing some 10 million people and destroying most of its infrastructure. The UN says some 14,000 people have perished in the war so far, but the figure is widely believed to be much higher, due to the difficulty reporting from remote areas.

International experts warned on Thursday that 755,000 people are facing famine in the coming months, and that 8.5 million others are facing extreme food shortages.

The war broke out when weeks of tension between the army and the RSF over their mandate and role in a democratic Sudan boiled over into violence.

Both have been accused of war crimes, with the army facing accusations of using air power in densely populated areas and the RSF of looting, sexual assault and ethnically motivated attacks.

Al Shafie Ahmed reported from Kampala, Uganda.