PeoplSudan’s military has recaptured Wad Madani, a strategically vital metropolis some 200km (124 miles) southeast of the capital Khartoum, in a serious blow to the paramilitary Fast Help Forces (RSF).
“The management of the Armed Forces congratulates our individuals on the entry of our forces into Wad Madani this morning. They’re now working to wash up the remaining insurgent pockets inside the town,” a military assertion learn.
This comes as the military superior into the nation’s second-largest metropolis Omdurman final week after making regular features in current months. Wad Madani – the crossroads of key provide highways linking a number of states – had been beneath RSF management since December 2023.
RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nevertheless, insisted that the battle was not over. “Right now we misplaced a spherical, we didn’t lose the battle,” mentioned Dagalo, who’s also called Hemedti.
Since preventing erupted in April 2023 between the military and the RSF over management of this North African nation, greater than 12 million individuals have been displaced, creating one of many world’s largest humanitarian crises.
So how important is the recapture of Wad Madani by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)? Can the military repeat its current success because it goals to recapture territories nonetheless beneath RSF management?
How strategically positioned is Wad Madani? The place is it positioned?
Town is the capital of Gezira state, positioned within the centre of the nation and south of Khartoum.
Based on Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, whoever has management of the agricultural and buying and selling hub has simpler entry to different elements of the nation.
“When the RSF took over Wad Madani in December 2023, that gave it the flexibility to have the ability to transfer to different elements of the nation akin to Sennar within the southeast, Blue Nile within the east, and the White Nile within the south as properly,” Morgan mentioned, reporting from the Sudanese capital.
Town can be at “an important level” via which provides and different “logistical preparations” will be made into the capital, based on Hamid Khalafallah, a Sudan coverage analyst and PhD candidate on the College of Manchester.
“Whoever controls Madani [has] much more flexibility when it comes to totally different stuff into Khartoum and out of Khartoum,” Khalafallah advised Al Jazeera.
Within the early days of the battle, earlier than the RSF took over, the town was a protected haven for displaced households.
For the reason that RSF’s takeover, it has been one of many websites of the paramilitary pressure’s bloodiest assaults on civilians, in addition to the burning of fields, looting of hospitals and markets, and flooding of irrigation ditches.
Has the Sudanese military captured all the Gezira state?
No, the RSF nonetheless retains management of many of the state, in addition to practically all of Sudan’s western Darfur area and enormous elements of the nation’s south.
The military’s takeover of the strategic metropolis follows its bolstered marketing campaign to retake Gezira in current months, after retaking Sennar state within the south.
The military was helped by the flip of occasions in October, when RSF’s prime commander within the state defected to the SAF. The commander’s troops took half in Saturday’s operations.
Final week, the military superior within the second-largest metropolis Omdurman, capturing a number of areas from the RSF.
How important is the recapture of Wad Madani metropolis?
This represents a big flip of occasions within the conflict and one other blow to the RSF, which has had an higher hand towards the army within the practically two-year battle.
The military’s seize will permit it to entry different elements of the nation that the RSF will now be lower off from, such because the Sennar, Blue Nile, and White Nile states.
“Now that [the RSF] misplaced that territory, that progress that it was in a position to make is not going to be doable, and its forces in these areas will probably be trapped between forces of the Sudanese military,” mentioned Morgan.
“Wad Madani can be the place the military’s first infantry division is positioned, so that’s going to offer the military a morale increase,” she added.
When the RSF took over the town, there have been lots of complaints amongst officers and troopers that the management was not assembly the requirements of the Sudanese military and that there must be a alternative of the management, defined Morgan.
“Now that Wad Madani is again beneath the management of the Sudanese military, the military is more likely to achieve – particularly its management – is more likely to achieve extra assist, not simply from the troopers and officers but in addition from the Sudanese residents as properly,” she mentioned.
Moreover, the town’s recapture may help in Sudan’s starvation disaster, because the state is house to Sudan’s most fertile lands and agriculture schemes – with most farming prohibited beneath the RSF, mentioned Khalafallah, the researcher.
“Now there will probably be room for individuals to develop, and to farm, and for meals to be produced, and so forth, to handle Sudan’s unfolding famine and meals safety disaster,” he mentioned.
The flip of occasions may additionally provide long-awaited respite to the town’s residents, who “have been experiencing essentially the most horrific human rights violations and atrocities dedicated by the [Rapid] Help Forces”, Khalafallah mentioned.
Nonetheless, there was a sample of the military focusing on pro-democracy activists within the cities they’ve already recaptured, Khalafallah warned, which might be a worrying improvement if repeated in Wad Madani.
How a lot territory does the military management now?
Past Wad Madani, the Sudanese military additionally controls the north and east of the nation, in addition to elements of the capital. The map beneath signifies areas of management between the SAF and the RSF, as of October 2024.
How did Sudanese individuals react to the seize?
In Wad Madani, Sudanese troops garbed in camo-print uniforms waved their rifles within the air as they rode via city on the again of their vans, flashing smiles after claiming to “liberate” the town, social media footage verified by Al Jazeera exhibits.
The native resistance committee, one among tons of of pro-democracy volunteer teams throughout the nation coordinating front-line help, hailed the advance as an finish to “the tyranny” of the RSF.
In the meantime, eyewitnesses in army-controlled cities throughout Sudan reported dozens jubilantly celebrating within the streets.
Within the Purple Sea-flanked metropolis of Port Sudan, boisterous crowds waved the Sudanese flag in celebration, verified movies additionally confirmed, following the information that the strategic metropolis had been taken from the RSF’s management.
In Omdurman, chants of “one military, one individuals” broke out, an eyewitness advised the AFP information company.
