Sudan’s military breaks paramilitary group’s siege of crucial city

Sudan's military breaks siege on Obeid, defeats RSF, and battles cholera outbreak, marking significant progress in ongoing conflict.

“Sudan’s military on Sunday (February 23, 2025) broke a more than yearlong siege on the crucial city of Obeid, restoring access to a strategic area in the south-central region and strengthening crucial supply routes in its nearly two years of war against a notorious paramilitary group,” officials said.

“The military also kicked the Rapid Support Forces from its last stronghold in the White Nile province in another setback to the notorious group,” military spokesman Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah said in a statement.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country.

The fighting, which wrecked the capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.

Abdullah, the spokesman, said military troops in the al-Sayyad axis managed to reopen the road to the city of Obeid and break the RSF siege on the city which serves as the provincial capital of North Kordofan province. The city hosts a sprawling airbase and the military’s 5th Infantry Division known as Haganah.

A commercial and transportation hub, Obeid is located on a railway linking Khartoum to Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur province. It was besieged by the RSF since the onset of the ongoing conflict in April 2023.

Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim hailed the military’s advances in Obeid as a “massive step” to lift the RSF siege on el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, as well as delivering humanitarian aid to the Kordofan area.