The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival paramilitaries who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

The army said that Sinja had been “liberated… from the terrorist militia”.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

“Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation,” the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser’s office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to “inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja”.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his “indescribable joy” at seeing the army enter the city after “months of terror”.

“At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you,” the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The paramilitaries control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million — creating what the UN says is the world’s largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref — where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge — Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family’s ordeal might soon be at an end.

“We’ll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering,” she told AFP.

Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in a southeastern village. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in a southeastern village, a medical source and witnesses said on Friday (August 16, 2024), in an attack that followed U.S.-sponsored talks aimed at ending 16 months of devastating war.

The assault occurred in Jalgini village in the State of Sennar on Thursday (August 15, 2024).

“We received 55 dead and dozens of wounded at the hospital on Thursday, and 25 of them died on Friday, bringing the death toll to 80,” a source at Jalgini’s medical centre told AFP.

Also Read:Why is Sudan still at war a year on? | Explained

A survivor said the paramilitaries attacked on Thursday (August 15, 2024) morning.

“Yesterday morning, three military vehicles attacked Jalgini. The residents resisted, prompting the retreat of the paramilitaries, who then returned with dozens of vehicles,” a Jalgini resident, who took his wounded son to the hospital added.

“They opened fire, torching homes and killing numerous people,” said the man, who asked not to be named. “On Friday, some bodies were still strewn on the street.”

Ceasefire talks began on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) in Geneva, hosted by the United States, Saudi, and Swiss mediators, though the Sudanese army refused to take part.

Previous rounds of negotiations in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia have failed to produce an agreement to end the fighting.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which since April 2023 has been battling Sudan’s regular army, captured the Sennar State capital of Sinja in June.

Since then, fighting in Sennar has displaced nearly 726,000 people, according to the United Nations agency the International Organization for Migration.

Many of them had fled the war in other parts of the northeast African country.

The State connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, the central State of Al-Jazira, the vast western Darfur region and large swathes of Kordofan in the south.

The war pits Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

It has pushed the country of 48 million to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations, and killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates of up to 150,000, according to US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello.

More than 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, most in areas facing worsening humanitarian conditions as fighting spreads.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.