Army ends two-year siege of el-Obeid

The Sudanese army says that it broke a nearly two-year seat imposed by the paramilitary forces of rapid support (RSF) on the main capital of the state of southern El-Obeid.

The breakthrough occurred a few hours after the RSF signed a political charter in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to establish a government escaped in the areas under its control.

The RSF and the army have been in a vicious battle for power since April 2023, with tens of thousands of people killed and forced millions from their home.

The war divided the country, the army controlling the north and east while the RSF holds most of the Darfur region to the west and in certain parts of the South.

El-Obeid, the capital of the state of North Kordofan, is a strategic center connecting the capital, Khartoum, in Darfur. This is the last advance of the army in recent weeks after the recovery of several parts of Khartoum from the RSF.

There was a jubilation in the streets while Sudanese soldiers were walking in the city.

A military spokesman Nabil Abdallah confirmed the gains in a statement, saying that army forces had destroyed the RSF units.

The Minister of Finance, Jibril Ibrahim, said that this decision was a “massive stage” in the lifting of the RSF siege of El-Fasher, the capital of the Darfur province of the North, and would also allow the delivery of aid humanitarian aid in Kordofan.

Dallia Abdlemoniem, activist of Sudanese civil society, told the BBC Newsday program that the recovery of the city “was” huge “and” important “.

She said the RSF had “owned captive civilians for almost two years” in the city.

The situation was “horrible”, she said, adding that there had been no medical or food aid in an area considered “very risky in terms of famine and malnutrition”. She said that she hoped that more help would now be allowed to enter.

“Lifting the siege brings life to the city,” said Ahmed Hussein, a 53-year-old merchant in El-Obeid, to the AFP news agency.

Ms. Abdelmoniem said that the army “did serious work in terms of moving to the west, where the RSF is mainly centered”.

The latest battles around El-Fasher forced medical charities without borders (MSF) to stop operations in Zamzam, a nearby famine camp, which houses around 500,000 displaced people.

MSF said it was a “heartbreaking decision”, but it had “little choice” because it was too dangerous for its staff to operate it.

The army and the RSF were accused of having committed serious atrocities against civilians during the war, their leaders being sanctioned by the United States. In addition, RSF was accused of having carried out a genocide in Darfur.

The two deny the accusations.

The accommodation of Kenya of the RSF last week when he sought to form a parallel government was criticized by certain human rights groups.

On Sunday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sudan, Ali Youssef, said that his country “would accept” no grateful country “a so-called parallel government”.

Earlier, the military government of Sudan had warned that it would take reprisal measures against Kenya and since then recalled its Nairobi ambassador.

In response, the Kenya Foreign Ministry said that there was “no later reason” in “the supply of non -partisan platforms to the parties in conflict”.