Heavy fighting shook the rail hub of Babanusa on Friday after Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters stormed the western city, encircling General al-Burhan’s army’s (SAF) 22nd Infantry Division and threatening the SAF’s last major garrison in West Kordofan, residents and sources said.
Automatic weapons, artillery and drones rattled the largely deserted streets as RSF units pressed in from several directions, SAF officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Both sides reported dead and wounded, though exact numbers were not immediately available.
Footage circulated by the RSF appeared to show its fighters exchanging fire from trenches on the edge of the division’s headquarters.
Babanusa lies about 435 miles (700 kilometers) southwest of Khartoum and controls a junction linking Sudan’s western, eastern and northern railway lines. Losing the garrison would all but erase the SAF’s presence in West Kordofan, analysts say, after recent RSF takeovers of the nearby towns of an-Nuhud, al-Khawi, Umm Samima and Kazgil.
The clashes come as the RSF tightens a months-long siege of Al Obeid, the capital of neighboring North Kordofan state, aiming to seize the region’s largest city.
General al-Burhan and his SAF have suffered several setbacks across Kordofan since mid-May, when they withdrew from al-Khawi after heavy losses.
Sudan’s war, now in its second year, erupted in April 2023 when a power struggle between SAF chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and RSF commander Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo broke into open conflict, spreading from Khartoum to the restive western and southern regions. Diplomacy has so far failed to halt the fighting, which has displaced millions and pushed parts of the country to the brink of famine.
