The Sudanese army recaptures a major city from paramilitary forces accused of genocide

The Sudanese army regained control of a major city in Sudan’s breadbasket region on Saturday, going after a paramilitary group that the United States accused last week of committing genocide.

The Sudanese Minister of Information said that the army had “liberated” the city of Wad Madani, while the army said that its forces were working to “clear the remnants of the rebels” from the area.

If the army manages to hold on to the city, this will be its most important victory since the war began nearly two years ago. Experts said the focus of the war would likely shift north to the capital, Khartoum.

Videos circulating on the Internet showed the army entering Wad Madani, which is located about 100 miles south of the capital. Local media reported that fighters from the paramilitary group, known as the Rapid Support Forces, fled the city.

The group’s leader, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan, admitted defeat but pledged to retake the city soon. “Today we lost a round. “We have not lost the battle,” he said in an audio address to his fighters and the Sudanese people.

The victory brought joyful scenes in military-controlled areas of the country among Sudanese who hoped it would mark a turning point in a devastating civil war that led to massacres, ethnic cleansing and widespread famine in one of Africa’s largest countries.

People gathered in the battle-torn streets of Khartoum, while church bells rang in Port Sudan, the de facto wartime capital where many Sudanese fled the fighting. Celebrations also broke out among Sudanese exiles in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The defeat of the Rapid Support Forces came just over a year after the group took control of Wad Madani in a victory that forced tens of thousands of people to flee and It sent shock waves through Sudan. The group’s fighters continued to control large areas of the country away from their stronghold in Darfur in western Sudan.

But most of the brutal fighting took place in Darfur, where RSF fighters slaughtered members of rival ethnic groups, according to human rights groups and the United Nations. Last week the United States officially It determined that these killings constitute genocideSanctions were imposed on the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Lieutenant General Hamdan, widely known as Hemedti.

The United States also imposed sanctions on seven companies in the United Arab Emirates that it accused of trading gold and purchasing weapons on behalf of the Rapid Support Forces.

In recent months, the tide of fighting appeared to have turned, with the Rapid Support Forces ceding areas in Khartoum and parts of the east of the country. The army launched a counter-attack in the area around De Madani, culminating in the recapture of the city on Saturday.

However, it is too early to say whether victory will radically change the course of the conflict. Since the first shots were fired in April 2023, the momentum of the fighting has swung back and forth, sometimes violently.

The army and the RSF were once allies, and their leaders joined forces to stage a military coup in 2021. But in the war between them, they enjoyed the support of various foreign powers.

The RSF is backed by the United Arab Emirates, a wealthy Gulf sponsor that has supplied it with weapons and powerful drones, most of which have been smuggled into Sudan from neighboring countries.

The Sudanese army obtained or purchased weapons from Iran, Russia, and Turkey. Both sides are extracting the country’s vast gold reserves to finance the fighting.

For ordinary Sudanese, the war has brought nothing but misery, death and destruction, killing tens of thousands of people, displacing 11 million from their homes, and sparking one of the world’s worst famines in decades.

The International Commission against Hunger, known as IPC, reported last month that the famine had spread to five regions in Sudan, and was expected to reach five more regions in the coming months. In total, 25 million Sudanese suffer from acute or chronic hunger.

Both sides have committed atrocities and war crimes, according to UN and US officials, although only the RSF has been accused of ethnic cleansing.