Sudan RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo tells fighters they are ‘unleashed’ after Kordofan highway loss

Sudan paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo told Rapid Support Forces fighters on Monday to consider themselves “unleashed” in their war against the Sudanese army, a day after army sources said troops pushed the RSF off a key highway in North Kordofan.

Daglo’s parallel administration published a video message in which he told fighters on the frontlines: “From today, I no longer hold the reins, I have released the reins to you.”

The message followed a days-long army advance across North Kordofan state. Two army sources told AFP that troops had pushed the RSF west, away from the roughly 400-kilometre highway connecting Khartoum with El-Obeid, the largest city in Kordofan.

The United Nations has warned that RSF fighters could commit mass atrocities in Kordofan as they try to encircle El-Obeid before an apparent large-scale assault.

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 helped secure the advance.

Drone strikes were also reported at dawn inside El-Obeid. Local officials blamed the RSF. An AFP reporter saw the local lawyers’ association building and a branch of the Agricultural Bank of Sudan in ruins, but no casualties were reported.

El-Obeid sits at a strategic crossroads between Khartoum, Kordofan, Darfur and southern Sudan. The UN says hundreds of thousands of people in the city need aid. One resident, Sabreen Mohamed, told AFP that opening the highway meant goods could flow, though the road to Khartoum remained closed to civilians.

The war between Daglo’s RSF and the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan began in April 2023. Aid workers estimate it has killed more than 200,000 people and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.

Survivor testimony and UN reports accuse RSF forces of atrocities including ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and summary executions. Both sides have reportedly committed war crimes, including indiscriminate bombing.