Sudanese army plans westward push to drive out RSF from Darfur

Chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has ordered army forces to advance on the western Darfur region to liberate it from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a regional governor said.

Darfur Governor Mini Arko Minnawi pledged to move west under Burhan's instructions "to liberate all Sudan, reaching the furthest point in Um Dafuq," a border town in South Darfur state.

"No one can erase the traces of the crimes committed by the RSF leaders," Minnawi was quoted by the local Al-Rakoba News portal on Tuesday while addressing army forces in Khartoum.

The regional governor called the RSF claims of arresting one of the group's commanders, Abu Lulu, who appeared in videos gunning down hundreds of civilians in El-Fasher, "a political theater that will not change the facts."

According to Egypt's state-run Al-Qahera News channel, the Sudanese army shelled an RSF military camp on Tuesday in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF on the report.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty arrived in Sudan early Tuesday for talks with Sudanese officials. Cairo is a key backer of the Sudanese government.

On Oct. 26, the RSF seized control of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, and committed massacres, according to local and international organizations.

With the fall of El-Fasher, the RSF gained control of all five Darfur states in the west, out of Sudan's 18 states, while the army controls most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital Khartoum.

Darfur makes up about one-fifth of Sudan's territory, but most of the country's 50 million people live in army-held areas.

Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.