Sudan army refutes claim that RSF has seized key city of Babnusa

The fall of the city, a gateway to western Sudan’s Darfur region, over which the RSF recently seized control, could have huge effect on the war.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has refuted a claim by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that it has seized control of the West Kordofan town of Babnusa.

Sudan’s military government said in a statement issued on Tuesday that it had repelled an attack by the RSF. The paramilitary outfit had claimed the previous day to have taken full control of Babnusa, a key city in the vast central Sudanese region of West Kordofan.

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Babnusa serves as a gateway to the Darfur region, over which the paramilitary force took full control last month, and the whole of western Sudan.

Videos released by the RSF on Monday showed its fighters taking an army base in Babnusa after a weeks-long siege. However, the SAF maintained it was still fighting in the city.

The RSF “launched a new attack on the city, which our forces decisively repelled”, the official spokesperson for the Armed Forces said in a statement.

“The army says that the battles are ongoing, that they have their fighters still inside the city,” Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reported from Khartoum. “But what we can definitely confirm is that when it comes to the army headquarters itself, the RSF has taken control of that.”

RSF members stand in front of the main gate of the 22nd SAF Infantry Division, in Babnusa, Sudan, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video released December 1 [Social Media/via Reuters]

If the RSF consolidates control of Babnusa, it will have “solidified its control over the West Kordofan region” and along with it “any major access ways to the western part of the country”, she said.

“For the Sudanese army to get to parts of Darfur or to other parts of Kordofan, it has to go through Babnusa,” said Morgan, so losing the city would make regaining territory in Darfur even more challenging.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported fierce clashes were also taking place throughout other parts of Kordofan, including in the southern area of Abbasiya Tagali.

Broken ‘ceasefire’

The RSF’s assault on Babnusa builds on the group’s momentum after it captured the city of el-Fasher, the army’s final holdout in Darfur.

Witnesses and international aid agencies working on the ground have recounted widespread atrocities committed by the RSF. Evidence shows RSF militias engaged in mass killings, rape, and kidnapping.

The latest clashes also appear to break the unilateral ceasefire that was announced by the RSF following mediation efforts from the “Quad” – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States.

The SAF, which rejected the ceasefire terms presented by the Quad as too favourable to its adversary, has accused the RSF of continuing attacks despite its declared truce.

The government statement called the announced ceasefire “nothing but a political and media ploy intended to cover up [the RSF’s] field movements and the continuous flow of Emirati support that fuels the war and kills Sudanese people”.

The UAE has been widely accused of supporting the RSF with money and weapons, but it has staunchly rejected any involvement.

Analysts say that if Babnusa falls completely, the RSF is likely to move towards North Kordofan’s el-Obeid.

Should the city fall, the political shockwave will be enormous, Kholood Khair, the founding director of UK-based risk management provider Confluence Advisory, said.

“It’s a huge mercantile centre, a regional capital, and a major economic win. It also brings the RSF several steps closer to Khartoum.”

The RSF were forced out of the Sudanese capital in March, with the SAF appearing to be in the ascendancy in the more-than-two-year war.

But now the tables appear to be turning once more. Having lost Darfur completely with the fall of el-Fasher, the SAF now risks losing Kordofan also.

“The RSF has momentum, which they will carry on through with,” said Dallia Abdelmoniem, a Sudanese political analyst, who pointed out that an RSF ally, the SPLM-N, already controls the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan.