RSF claim victories in Jebel Aulia and East Darfur

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claim control of the entire Jebel Aulia military base south of Khartoum, including the bridge linking Khartoum to Omdurman, at dawn yesterday. The paramilitary group continues to make ground in East Darfur, seizing the Shag Omar oilfield in Abu Karinka and Ed Daein International Airport. 

The spokesperson for the RSF said in a press statement that their control of the Jebel Aulia military base, a strategic target, comes as part of a “series of victories.”  

Warplanes bombed the area after the RSF took control of it, and its paramilitaries published video clips showing several destroyed military vehicles and scattered bodies due to aerial bombardment. 

For the first time since the fighting began on April 15, Maj Gen Osman Hamid, director of the RSF Military Operation Room, appeared inside the captured military base yesterday morning. 

In a video clip, Hamid pledged to fight to protect the RSF, and the Sudanese people, and for justice, equality, freedom, and peace. 

He is one of the army officers who refused to rejoin the army after his contract was ended by Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, head of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and commander of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), on April 15. 

On Sunday evening, soldiers published video clips showing RSF presence on the mountain and in the vicinity of the reservoir. 

On Saturday, the two sides exchanged accusations of destroying the Jebel Aulia Bridge. Citizens revealed that the moving part of the bridge had been damaged. 

There were conflicting statements and videos published by the army and the RSF during the past week regarding the control of El Najumi air defence base.  

Citizens also told Radio Dabanga that communications and internet networks had been cut off in large parts of Omdurman due to continued bombing in the region. 

The Jebel Aulia Emergency Room announced that several civilians were killed and injured as a result of the RSF attack. It also published a list of 70 people that it said had been missing since the start of the battles in Jebel Aulia, along with pictures of the victims.  

At the beginning of this week, El Jamouiya tribe protested against the killing of three members of the tribe by RSF in the area. It was not possible to obtain comment from the official spokespeople for the RSF or SAF. 

Last week, footage shared on X (formerly Twitter) appeared to show armed men, identifying themselves as members of the El Jomouiya tribe, warning that “any RSF soldier attempting to cross this road will be buried here”. The caption specifies the location as “the western road to southern Omdurman.” 

The recent battles led to the displacement of a large number of civilians from various villages and neighbourhoods of Jebel Aulia to White Nile state and Khartoum. A large number of citizens were also displaced from El Katina in White Nile state after the RSF deployed outposts in parts of the city.  

Social media activists have launched the hashtag #JebelAuliaMassacre (مجزرة_جبل_اولياء# in Arabic), accusing the RSF of killing and detaining a significant number of civilians. The hashtag is also serving as a platform to share images of missing people, seeking information on their whereabouts, and to pay tributes to those who were killed. 

Ed Daein 

In East Darfur, the RSF took control of the Shag Omar oilfield, known as Sufyan, near the Gad El Saeed administrative unit in Abu Karinka. The force also published video clips confirming their control of the internal airport in Ed Daein on Monday morning. 

Eyewitnesses told Radio Dabanga that columns of smoke rose from the oilfield amid widespread looting of properties and facilities in the area. There were casualties during the attack. According to the witnesses, the army withdrew from the field. 

On November 5, two RSF units launched an attack on the Zarga Um Hadid oilfield in Adila and the Shag Omar field in Abu Karinka, an East Darfur journalist told Radio Dabanga. 

Several civilians were injured in Ed Daein as a result of clashes between the RSF and the SAF in the vicinity of the 20th Division on Monday. 

Mustafa Bakht, a youth from the city of Ed Daein, told Radio Dabanga that the clashes between the two sides “continued for a while,” while a journalist from East Darfur State revealed that the clashes lasted for two hours. 

The journalist said that the injured were transferred to Ed Daein Hospital. A mediation team consisting of the civil administration and the youth “continued its interventions to persuade the parties to stop fighting.”  

“There is a constant state of tension as a result of the clashes,” he said. “The RSF has been stationed at Umm Waraqa, with a force of about 100 military vehicles, for days.” 

North Kordofan 

A citizen of Kubum told Radio Dabanga that 7 people were killed, according to the RSF, as a result of the SAF bombing of El Hamra in North Kordofan on Monday.  

The RSF condemned the bombing, considering it a clear violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. The RSF controls parts of North Kordofan. Radio Dabanga could not obtain comment from an SAF spokesperson. 

The RSF began an offensive in the region after the SAF withdrew from several garrisons in Darfur in early November. The army also withdrew from six garrisons in West Kordofan to regroup at the same time.