The military doesn’t dispute RSF’s assertion, however says the combating is ongoing in Singa, the capital of Sennar state.
Paramilitary forces battling Sudan’s military for greater than a yr say they’ve captured a key state capital within the war-torn nation’s southeast.
“Now we have liberated the seventeenth Infantry Division from Singa [the capital of Sennar state],” the Fast Assist Forces (RSF) introduced on X on Saturday.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from the capital Khartoum, mentioned the RSF is gaining management of an rising variety of territories throughout Sudan, particularly in jap and western components of the nation’s south.
“They already management a big portion of the Darfur area, apart from el-Fasher, which is the one remaining metropolis underneath the military’s and allied teams’ management,” she mentioned.
Morgan mentioned the Sudanese military doesn’t dispute the RSF’s assertion that it has taken management of the seventeenth Infantry Division.
“Nevertheless, they are saying their forces are nonetheless current within the metropolis and they’re nonetheless combating,” she mentioned. “What we will positively affirm is civilians have witnessed clashes and plenty of of them have began leaving the town since yesterday [Saturday] and extra persons are leaving the town this [Sunday] morning.”
Tens of millions displaced
Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when combating erupted between forces loyal to military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The battle within the nation of 48 million has killed tens of 1000’s, displaced hundreds of thousands and triggered one of many world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The newest RSF breakthrough means they’re closing in on Port Sudan on the Purple Sea, the place the military, authorities and the United Nations businesses at the moment are primarily based.
The RSF controls many of the capital Khartoum, Gezira state within the centre of the nation, the huge western area of Darfur and far of Kordofan to the south.
Sennar state is already house to a couple of million displaced Sudanese. It connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast.
Posts on social media confirmed 1000’s of individuals fleeing in automobiles and on foot, and witnesses informed the AFP information company that “1000’s of individuals have taken refuge” on the east financial institution of the Blue Nile river east of Singa.
RSF forces are additionally besieging and looking for to seize the city of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, the company mentioned.
On Thursday, a worldwide starvation monitor mentioned almost 26 million persons are going through excessive ranges of “acute food insecurity” in Sudan.