Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Monday entered Wad Madani, a city southeast of the capital that had taken in many displaced people and served as an aid hub over eight months of war, witnesses and RSF fighters said.
The area is home to hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled the violence further north in the capital, Khartoum.
The group announced on X that its “Actions were a significant blow to the extremist former regime, its allied militias, and its jihadi Shadow Brigades. Demonstrating exceptional courage and tactical skill, the RSF inflicted severe losses on these groups, ultimately forcing them into retreat.”
Civilian Dallia Abdelmoniem, who is currently in Cairo but has family in Wad Madani, told the BBC’s Newsday programme about what happened at the military base.
“It’s an army stronghold and the fact that the RSF was able to breach the army stronghold does not bode well,” she said.
The RSF accused the army of carrying out ethnic killings in Wad Madani, saying “The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its extremist backers linked to the former regime have engaged in grievous human rights abuses in Wad Madani. They are accountable for executing brutal assassinations and the unwarranted detainment of civilians.”
“We are now closer to putting an end to the unacceptable racial and ethnic discrimination employed by the former regime that has led to the killing and arrests of innocent civilians in Wad Madani and other cities,” the group added.
There’s international concern that the war – which began in April – is spreading.
There are also reports of renewed fighting in the city of Nyala in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
