The Sudanese Army has regained control of a major highway connecting Khartoum to the city of El Obeid, which the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had been attempting to fully encircle, two military sources reported on Monday.
اضافة اعلان
After mobilizing forces on the outskirts of El Obeid, the RSF has now been pushed westward away from the 400-kilometer highway linking Khartoum with the largest city in the Kordofan region.
El Obeid sits at a strategic crossroads: its north–south highway extends from Khartoum through to the rest of Kordofan, while its east–west axis connects RSF strongholds in Darfur with army-controlled territories in central and eastern Sudan.
The highway leading to Khartoum remains closed to civilians, who have relied almost entirely throughout the war on the eastern route to the White Nile—a corridor frequently targeted by deadly RSF drone strikes.
One of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to address the media, explained that securing the Omdurman–El Obeid road opens a second supply line to El Obeid and areas beyond.
The United Nations warned on July 17 that the humanitarian situation in El Obeid was deteriorating rapidly amid a growing influx of newly arrived displaced persons in camps.
For weeks, the UN has alerted that atrocities similar to those committed during the RSF's takeover of El Fasher in Darfur last October could be repeated in El Obeid.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) noted that the population of El Obeid has nearly doubled, while the agency has only been able to provide food assistance to a fraction of those in need.
"The city continues to face severe pressures regarding the availability of food, water, and fuel," said WFP Country Director in Sudan, Abdallah Alwardat, following a visit to El Obeid on Thursday.
Speaking to journalists, Alwardat added: "Simply put, what we saw is a city with an original population of 500,000 to 600,000 that has almost doubled" due to the influx of internally displaced persons from across the Kordofan states.
The war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces, has killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced more than 11 million, leaving vast areas across Sudan grappling with hunger and famine.
AFP
