Sudan’s head of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has visited frontline positions in North Kordofan after government troops recaptured key areas from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
He was accompanied by Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi, North Kordofan Governor Abdel Khalik Abdel Latif, and the commander of the Sudan Shield Forces, the army reported on Monday. Al-Burhan inspected troops in the Umm Sayala and Jabra al-Sheikh areas, where he was greeted by soldiers after arriving by helicopter.
The visit came as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) continue operations against the RSF.
Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the national army (Sudanese Armed Forces, SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This occurred after months of tension between their commanders, army generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemedti’, respectively, over a planned transition to civilian rule. What began in the capital, Khartoum, as a power struggle has devastated the country, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions.
Regional and international peace efforts, including African Union mediation and Saudi–US talks in Jeddah, have repeatedly stalled. Sudanese officials have named Colombians and Ukrainians among mercenaries backing the RSF against the army. Officials have also accused Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates of involvement and recently claimed the European Union has an “incomplete understanding of the complex situation” in the country.
Khartoum has also accused authorities in neighboring Kenya of backing the RSF and has broken ties with the East African grouping IGAD amid mistrust of regional mediation. In July, TASIS, a political coalition aligned with the paramilitary, announced the formation of a rival government months after its members signed a charter in Nairobi. It named Gen. Dagalo as chairman of a 15-member presidential council, a move rejected by the UN and AU.
Jabra al-Sheikh is considered a strategically important town on Sudan’s export route, linking North Kordofan with the capital, Khartoum, and located close to El Obeid, the state capital. According to the Sudan Tribune, military sources said the town had served as one of the RSF’s main strongholds in the region after the group’s withdrawal from Khartoum.
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The same sources said the RSF had used Jabra al-Sheikh as a launch point for military operations across North Kordofan and as a key position for threatening supply lines and roads leading to Omdurman and El Obeid.
According to the Sudan Tribune, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, responded to recent battlefield losses by granting field commanders greater operational independence. In remarks on Monday, he said they would be free to initiate attacks without waiting for instructions from the group’s leadership. He also imposed a ban on filming military operations, saying anyone who breached the order would be considered an enemy collaborator.
Separately, Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said on Sunday that the country’s healthcare services had recovered to 75% of normal capacity. He noted that medicine supplies remained stable, several pharmaceutical companies had resumed operations, and the country’s health sector was gradually recovering.
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