Tawir: RSF advances in Um Rawaba ‘an attempt to spread conflict across Sudan’

Former Sovereignty Council member Siddig Tawir frames the attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in North Kordofan on Sunday as an attempt to expand the armed conflict with the Sudanese army. A state of calm returned to Um Rawaba following a “show of force” by RSF fighters in the town on Sunday. Intense fighting continued in Khartoum state yesterday and today.

The RSF attacked the areas east and southwest of Um Rawaba town in the southern part of North Kordofan on Sunday. They claimed control of the army garrison in Wad Ashana but were less successful in Kilo 44.

“With the capture of the Wad Ashana garrison, the RSF has effectively cleared the path for an advance towards Kosti in White Nile state,” the RSF stated.

Siddig Tawir, leading member of Sudan’s Socialist Arab Ba’ath Party and former member of the Sovereignty Council, told Radio Dabanga that he is worried about the RSF attacks on Sunday.

“This incident raises concerns as the area is far removed from the war theatre and given there is no military garrison in Wad Ashana”, he said. “The RSF’s attempt to move towards Kosti represents an effort to escalate the armed conflict across all regions in the country”.

Tawir pointed the contradiction between the RSF’s statement about advancing to Kosti and earlier claims by the paramilitary force that they were compelled to engage in warfare in self-defence against the army.

He said he hopes that further military action will be confined to areas where direct confrontations between the army and the RSF have already occurred, “without any expansion of hostilities into peaceful areas”.

The clashes between the Sudanese army (SAF) and the RSF in the Wad Ashana area of North Kordofan on Sunday left at least four civilians dead.

Um Rawaba in North Kordofan, returned to a state of stability on Monday, following a “show of force” in the town’s market the day before.

Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers strongly condemned the expansion of the fighting, particularly its encroachment into the Wad Ashana border area between North Kordofan and White Nile state.

In a statement on Sunday, the lawyers held the RSF responsible for attempting to relocate military operations to residential areas.

Fighting in the capital

On Monday, the fierce battles between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF continued in various parts of Khartoum state.

Sources reported heavy artillery shelling from the Karari military base in north Omdurman targeted Shambat in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri). Military aircraft carried out bombing runs in Sharg El Nil (East Nile) at the other end of the city.

Shells hit houses in Omdurman’s El Sawra Blocks 30 and 34, and El Jereif West in Khartoum, resulting in casualties.

The RSF accused army soldiers of attacking the Ethiopian embassy in El Amarat in Khartoum this morning. In a post on X (former Twitter) this afternoon, they say that the Sudanese army “and its extremist allied militias have attacked this morning the Ethiopian Embassy in Khartoum, severely damaging the embassy building”.

The former government militia further asserts that the “only true way to maintain security and stability in Sudan and across the region is to eliminate the former regime [of Omar Al Bashir] in its entirety and build a unified national army devoid of any political ideology”.