Sudanese paramilitaries have taken control of Roufaa and made new inroads into the adjoining town of Wad Madani, both in the central-eastern state of al-Jazira, which had previously been spared from fighting, According to witnesses.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) expanded to Wad Madani, 180 kilometers south of Khartoum, which had become a sanctuary for many displaced people escaping the capital’s violence.
Residents fled the area as the fighting progressed.
The capital of al-Jazira state, Wad Madani is home to more than 270,000 people in need of “aid”, and has until now been a “humanitarian hub”, according to the UN.
According to witnesses, paramilitaries erected a military outpost there on Sunday before taking Roufaa, 40 kilometers from Wad Madani, on Monday.
According to the same sources, the RSF took possession of “the army headquarters, the police office, and the hospital after an hour of fighting.”
The paramilitaries claimed control of, among other things, “the army’s first infantry division in Wad Madani” in a message on X (previously Twitter).
The army, for its part, stated that “the security situation in al-Jazira state has stabilized,” urging locals not to “leave their homes.”
On another front, this time in the vast western region of Darfur, a military source said that the army had struck the airport of Nyala, Sudan’s second-largest city, as well as the 16th Infantry Division buildings, which paramilitaries said they had captured in October.
The same source added that “the RSF’s Al-Zurq base, the main supply center, was bombed”.
The “Emergency Lawyers” collective said in a statement that a bombardment had “hit populated neighborhoods” on Monday, following another on Thursday carried out with “explosive barrels, killing 10 people and injuring 37 civilians”.
The conflict between the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and his deputy-turned-rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, head of the RSF, has left at least 12,000 people dead and more than six million displaced in this East African country, according to the UN.
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