Drone strikes hit El-Obeid after Sudan army says it retook key Khartoum highway

Drone strikes hit Sudan’s city of El-Obeid at dawn on Monday, hours after army sources said troops had regained control of the highway linking the city to Khartoum.

Local officials blamed the Rapid Support Forces for the strikes. An AFP reporter saw the local lawyers’ association building and a branch of the Agricultural Bank of Sudan in ruins. No casualties were reported.

Two army sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said troops had pushed the RSF west during a days-long advance across North Kordofan state. They said the operation forced the paramilitary group away from the roughly 400-kilometre highway between Khartoum and El-Obeid.

The army released footage on Monday showing army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visiting Jabrat al-Sheikh, described as one of the last RSF holdout positions along the highway. He appeared with Darfur governor and Joint Forces commander Minni Minawi and Sudan Shield Forces commander Abu Aqla Kaykal, whose fighters were described as helping the army advance.

One army source said the advance opened a second supply route to El-Obeid and areas beyond the city. The highway remained closed to civilians, who have largely relied on the eastern road towards the White Nile during much of the war.

An El-Obeid resident, Sabreen Mohamed, told AFP that the highway opening meant goods could flow. A retired army officer told AFP that the RSF would now have to turn to defending West Kordofan, which he called the front line for Darfur.

The RSF has amassed forces around El-Obeid for months in an apparent attempt to encircle the city before a large-scale assault. El-Obeid is a strategic crossroads connecting Khartoum, Kordofan, Darfur and southern Sudan.

The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people in El-Obeid need humanitarian assistance. The city had about half a million people before its population doubled because of displacement, according to the source account.

The UN says drone strikes by both sides have killed more than 1,000 people in Kordofan since the beginning of the year. Aid workers estimate that the war between Sudan’s army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 200,000 people and left more than 33 million people in need of humanitarian aid.

The UN has warned of increasing risks to civilians around El-Obeid, including fears of atrocities similar to those committed during the RSF takeover of El-Fasher in October last year. A UN inquiry found that the El-Fasher takeover bore the “hallmarks of genocide”.