Sudan army enters North Khartoum, Darfur Joint Force combs North Darfur capital

Fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued this morning in El Mogran in northwestern Khartoum. Army troops entered Khartoum North, pushing the paramilitaries southwards. Fighting was also reported from other places in Khartoum state, and from areas north of the capital. The Darfur Joint Force reported a successful combing operation in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

On the early morning of Thursday, the army launched a major ground offensive from Omdurman on key areas in Khartoum state, occupied by the RSF since the start of the war in mid-April last year. On Friday, the areas of El Mogran in northwest Khartoum (where the two Niles meet), and El Halfaya and El Kadaro in Khartoum North witnessed mutual artillery shelling.

Yesterday evening, several Sudanese cities and towns controlled by the army witnessed people celebrating the large SAF offensive on Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri) and Khartoum.

Kassala city in eastern Sudan also witnessed celebrations accompanied with gunfire last night from several sides, both regular and civilian. A girl was hit by a stray bullet inside her home and was taken to Kassala Teaching Hospital where she underwent surgery.

Neighbourhoods in Cairo, Egypt, with a large Sudanese presence also saw people taking to the street and welcoming the army’s attempts to retake Khartoum state.

Khartoum state

Following the SAF’s seizure of the Halfaya Bridge between Omdurman and Khartoum North, multiple sources reported the arrival of SAF soldiers from the Karari military complex in Omdurman to the El Kadaro army base, the opening up of the Halfaya neighbourhoods. Army forces reached Kilo Station and the Baraha area and went further south via the El Ma’ouna Street.

Pro-army accounts on Facebook and X claimed that army troops advanced towards Shambat El Aradi, El Safya, and parts of El Mazad, while RSF soldiers withdrew towards Imtidad Shambat.

In Khartoum, violent clashes around the Armoured Corps toward El Lamab in the southwestern part of the city were reported yesterday. The Sudanese Air Force carried out airstrikes on RSF sites in El Ma’amoura neighbourhood in Khartoum, while RSF troops shelled army positions intermittently with heavy artillery.

The situation in El Mogran in northwest Khartoum remained unclear today. Fierce fighting continued in the morning, and each side published videos claiming victory. The SAF on Thursday entered El Mogran from Omdurman with the aim to push through to the SAF General Command east of the city centre.

The RSF shelled the neighbourhood of Banat and its surroundings in Omdurman, causing numerous injuries among people.

Communications and internet networks returned yesterday in Omdurman, after a blackout that lasted more than 48 hours.

El Jeili refinery

Multiple military sources denied rumours that the army had retaken control of the El Jeili Oil Refinery, 70 kilometres north of the capital, along the road to Shendi and Atbara in River Nile state.

According to a statement of the RSF on its X account, the paramilitaries repelled an army attack north of Khartoum that aimed to penetrate the El Jeili refinery axis. The statement said that they “inflicted heavy losses on the attacking forces in lives and equipment and pursued them to the gates of Shendi”.

The resistance committees of Hajar El Asal near the sixth cataract (El Sabaloga) in the most southern area of River Nile state said on their Facebook page that the RSF imposed their control over areas south of the area after the army withdrew.

They accused the RSF of plundering homes and terrorising the people, and also warned the army against “involving ordinary citizens in this war”. They also accused an RSF unit of three combat vehicles carrying 13 paramilitaries of attacking the El Sagay Rural Hospital and robbing the staff and relatives of the patients of their belongings. The hospital was receiving a number of army casualties.

The SAF is expected to renew its attack on the Jeili Oil Refinery with the aim of ensuring the road connecting its forces coming from the Nile River state with its soldiers in Khartoum North and Omdurman.

North Darfur capital

The Darfur Joint Force made up of combatants of rebel movements fighting the RSF in the capital of North Darfur yesterday spoke about a “positive field situation in the El Fasher axis” in a post on its Facebook page.

It said that its fighters, together with “the Special Action Forces and the advanced defence fortifications had “carried out a very extensive combing operation inside and outside the city walls, while warplanes of the Sudanese Air Force circled above the city”.

According to the Darfur Joint Force, the RSF were driven back towards the El Fasher regional bus station, the outskirts of the eastern neighbourhoods, and east of Jebel Abuja in the north of the city.

The humanitarian situation in El Fasher is extremely dire after months of heavy SAF-RSF fighting for control over the city.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday warned of “a growing, horrific toll on civilians” in the North Darfur capital.

“Over the past two weeks, the battle for El Fasher has escalated significantly and we have documented increasing incidents of civilians being killed as a result of shelling and airstrikes by both the RSF and the SAF,” he stated in a press release from Geneva.