The Sudanese  embassy in Nigeria has said that the Sudanese Armed Forces, together with allied Joint Force units, have  dealt a significant blow on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In a statement issued yesterday, the embassy’s media department said the army on September 17, recaptured eleven areas across North Kordofan State in a coordinated offensive along the strategic Forty Days Road corridor linking Kordofan to Darfur.

A spokesperson for the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) General Command was earlier quoted  by Sudan Tribune in its September 17 edition to have said that government troops and allied forces retook Kajmar, Sharshar, Al-Baniyah Al-Kurayniyah, Al-Qulay’at, Awlad Hazmah and Magwildat.

Other cities recaptured include, Rayshan, Al-Qaa, Ghabat Al-Laqad, Al-Kukaiti, and the area surrounding Al-Mazrub, inflicting heavy losses on the militia and pursuing its retreating fighters toward the borders of Darfur.
According to the national daily, the operation opened before dawn with a sustained drone campaign across North and West Kordofan, aimed at disrupting RSF reinforcement lines arriving from the west, before ground forces launched a coordinated assault from positions bordering Sodari, Umm Badr and Hamrat al-Sheikh.

“The advance builds on the army’s earlier recapture of Bara, Jabrat al-Sheikh and other transit points along the corridor in June, part of a sustained campaign to restore state authority across western Sudan”, the report said.

According to the spokesperson, military operations will continue steadily until state authority is fully restored, civilians protected and the region cleared of paramilitary forces responsible for widespread abuses documented by international rights groups during the RSF’s earlier occupation of the area.

Meanwhile, Darfur regional Governor, Minni Minawi, whose allied Joint Force factions fought alongside the army in the operation, commended the advance as a significant step toward restoring stability to the region.

He said that the offensive along the Forty Days Road is aimed at severing a corridor the RSF has previously used to move fighters and equipment between Darfur and the Khartoum theatre, and forms part of the army’s wider effort to secure western Sudan and protect civilians from the abuses that have characterised RSF rule in areas under its control.

The advance comes as Sudan’s Sovereign Council continues to press the international community to recognise the legitimacy of the country’s national institutions and to hold the RSF’s foreign backer accountable, reiterating that the restoration of state authority across the whole of Sudan remains the surest path to ending the conflict and protecting civilians nationwide.