RSF advances in West Kordofan as Sudan army chief El Burhan rejects truce

Intense fighting erupted on Sunday between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) inside the besieged city of Babanousa, the SAF’s remaining stronghold in West Kordofan. 

Local sources confirmed that clashes were unfolding in several districts of the city, while the RSF announced it had seized control of “large parts of Babanousa”.

The renewed violence comes as the Sudanese Army claimed on Saturday to have retaken the areas of Kazgail and Um Dam Haj Ahmed in North Kordofan, thereby securing the strategic capital of El Obeid, which for many analysts is seen as the gateway in securing a military victory.

Reports also indicate the SAF are pushing to lift the siege that the RSF and Abdelaziz El Hilu’s SPLM-N have imposed on Delling and Kadugli in South Kordofan.

The executive director of Um Dam Haj Ahmed reported that around 5,000 civilians fled the locality following RSF assaults, accusing the paramilitary force of “looting citizens’ property and killing them”.

Calls for a humanitarian truce

Amid escalating fighting, diplomatic pressure mounted over the weekend. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged Washington to support a coordinated humanitarian truce in a call with US presidential adviser Massad Boulos, yesterday.

Abdelatty stressed the need to implement the Quartet’s statement, including a comprehensive truce leading to a sustainable political process that preserves Sudan’s unity. 

Boulos said Washington had already proposed a three-month humanitarian truce aligned with the Quartet’s September 12 roadmap, noting that Qatar and Turkey “play an essential and pivotal role in efforts to resolve the Sudan crisis.”

El Burhan rejects negotiations

Head of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the SAF, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, called for renewed mass mobilisation, urging all capable Sudanese to join the front lines.

“Everyone who can carry arms must advance and join the battle to defeat what I call the rebel militia and eliminate it everywhere,” El Burhan said, addressing a crowd in El Seriha in El Gezira state on Friday.

“There is no truce with the rebels and no peace with them, before it is required to assemble the Rapid Support Forces in one place and lay down arms for negotiation,” he said, insisting there would be no negotiations or truce with the RSF.

“We tell the mediators that the dialogue will be after the rebels lay their arms. We will continue to fight until we cut it and eliminate it,” El Burhan added.

“Burhan’s declaration of general mobilisation and his rejection of any negotiations are a direct response to the US Secretary of State and a message to the international community that he will not respond to initiatives aimed at ending the war in Sudan. His demand that the RSF surrender its weapons before talks is nothing more than pipe dreams,” El Basha Tebeig, adviser to RSF Commander Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, said in a post on X yesterday.

He added: “The issue is no longer merely political but existential for millions of Sudanese. The march to free Sudan from war profiteers and militias will continue, no matter how they try to block peace.”