RSF seizes army garrison in strategic Kordofan city, Sudan
On Monday, Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces captured an army garrison in the West Kordofan city of Babanoussa, delivering another setback to the army just over a month after the capture of a major city in Darfur.
Footage posted online showed RSF fighters celebrating, firing in the air and chanting "Allahu akbar, we are inside the 22nd Division", the name of the army unit that had been defending the city against the RSF since shortly after Sudan's civil war broke out in 2023, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The authenticity of the video clips could not be immediately verified but they seemed to conform to those posted previously when the RSF has captured territory.
The RSF earlier said it had repelled an attack by the army in Babanoussa, despite a unilateral truce declared last week by the paramilitary's commander Gen Mohamad Dagalo.
"Our forces had no option but to exercise their legitimate right to self-defence and to repel the aggression," said the RSF. "We reiterate our firm commitment to the humanitarian truce."
There was no immediate comment from the army on the fate of Babanoussa, a one-time major railway hub that linked western Sudan with the east and north of the country.
The city had been sparsely populated for close to two years, with the RSF in control of most of its districts, a fact that led many to believe its fall into the hands of the paramilitary was only a question of time.
The loss of the city 700km south-west of the capital Khartoum comes less than five weeks after the army lost El Fasher, a major city in North Darfur.
The RSF now controls all of Darfur, an area roughly the size of France, and parts of Kordofan. The army is in possession of the capital, as well as the eastern, central and northern regions of the vast Afro-Arab nation of 50 million people, more than half of whom are facing hunger as a result of the civil war.
Sudan is also the scene of the world's largest displacement crisis, with more than 12 million people forced to leave their homes. Tens of thousands are believed to have died in the war, which is essentially a rivalry for domination between Gen Dagalo and army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, Sudan's de facto ruler.
The US, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, a group known as the Quad, have tabled peace proposals in the hope of ending the war. They envisage an initial truce followed by a political process to determine the country's future.
US President Donald Trump said he would throw his weight behind peace efforts after being asked to do so by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, his envoy Massad Boulos said on a visit to the UAE last week that neither side had yet accepted the specific text presented by the US.
Gen Al Burhan initially rejected the US truce proposal as the "worst" he had seen, before moderating his position by welcoming Mr Trump's involvement.
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