The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have broken a two-year siege of the city of El-Obeid in North Kordofan by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It comes just days after the paramilitary – sponsored by the United Arab Emirates – unveiled plans to launch a rival government in those parts of Sudan under its control.
El-Obeid serves as a strategic hub connecting the capital Khartoum to Darfur, and has been a contested location since the proxy war began. Analysts say that the RSF planned to use El-Obeid as a launch point for operations in western Darfur. The breaking of the siege was celebrated by locals, with trucks reportedly entering the city to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid.
The SAF and the RSF have been engaged in a proxy war since April 2023, with the army predominantly holding the northern and eastern regions while the paramilitary controls most of the western Darfur region and parts of the south. On-the-ground reports indicate that the SAF has made significant advances against the RSF in the west.With El-Obeid back under military control, there are suggestions that plans may be underway to break the RSF’s siege on El-Fasher by moving through Babanusa and El-Obeid. Recent fighting near El-Fasher has forced the medical charity Doctors Without Borders to suspend operations at the nearby ZamZam camp, which is experiencing famine and is reportedly home to about 500,000 displaced individuals. However, Western powers have done little to curb their backers in the Gulf.
While the US has sanctioned the leaders of both the RSF and the SAF, it continues to turn a blind eye to the UAE, a close Western ally, bankrolling a militia responsible for genocide. How has Abu Dhabi escaped sanctions? Well, its gold-smuggling and financial ties are woven into the same Western system that profits from conflict while claiming to uphold human rights.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has displaced over 11-million people (internally and abroad) and around half the population is food insecure, according to the UN. The death toll is widely feared to have exceeded 150,000.
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