PeoplSudan’s military has recaptured Wad Madani, a strategically necessary metropolis some 200km (124 miles) southeast of the capital Khartoum, in a serious blow to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“The management of the Armed Forces congratulates our folks 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 advanced into the nation’s second-largest metropolis Omdurman final week after making regular features in latest months. Wad Madani – the crossroads of key provide highways linking a number of states – had been below RSF management since December 2023.
RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nonetheless, insisted that the battle was not over. “Immediately we misplaced a spherical, we didn’t lose the battle,” stated Dagalo, who’s also referred to as Hemedti.
Since preventing erupted in April 2023 between the military and the RSF over management of this North African nation, greater than 12 million folks have been displaced, creating one of many world’s largest humanitarian crises.
So how vital is the recapture of Wad Madani by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)? Can the military repeat its latest success because it goals to recapture territories nonetheless below RSF management?
How strategically positioned is Wad Madani? The place is it positioned?
The town is the capital of Gezira state, positioned within the centre of the nation and south of Khartoum.
In response to 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 corresponding to Sennar within the southeast, Blue Nile within the east, and the White Nile within the south as effectively,” Morgan stated, reporting from the Sudanese capital.
The town can be at “an important level” by way of which provides and different “logistical preparations” will be made into the capital, in response to 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 secure haven for displaced households.
For the reason that RSF’s takeover, it has been one of many websites of the paramilitary power’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 a lot 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 latest months, after retaking Sennar state within the south.
The military was helped by the flip of occasions in October, when RSF’s high commander within the state defected to the SAF. The commander’s troops took half in Saturday’s operations.
Final week, the military advanced within the second-largest metropolis Omdurman, capturing a number of areas from the RSF.
How vital is the recapture of Wad Madani metropolis?
This represents a major flip of occasions within the battle and one other blow to the RSF, which has had an higher hand in opposition to 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 capable of make won’t be potential, and its forces in these areas shall be trapped between forces of the Sudanese military,” stated Morgan.
“Wad Madani can be the place the military’s first infantry division is positioned, so that’s going to provide the military a morale increase,” she added.
When the RSF took over the town, there have been plenty of complaints amongst officers and troopers that the management was not assembly the requirements of the Sudanese military and that there ought to be a substitute of the management, defined Morgan.
“Now that Wad Madani is again below 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 additionally from the Sudanese residents as effectively,” she stated.
Moreover, the town’s recapture might support in Sudan’s starvation disaster, because the state is residence to Sudan’s most fertile lands and agriculture schemes – with most farming prohibited below the RSF, stated Khalafallah, the researcher.
“Now there shall be room for folks to develop, and to farm, and for meals to be produced, and so forth, to deal with Sudan’s unfolding famine and meals safety disaster,” he stated.
The flip of occasions can also 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] Assist Forces”, Khalafallah stated.
Nonetheless, there was a sample of the military concentrating 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 folks react to the seize?
In Wad Madani, Sudanese troops garbed in camo-print uniforms waved their rifles within the air as they rode by way of 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, considered one of a whole lot of pro-democracy volunteer teams throughout the nation coordinating front-line support, 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 Pink Sea-flanked metropolis of Port Sudan, boisterous crowds waved the Sudanese flag in celebration, verified movies additionally confirmed, following the information that the strategic city had been taken from the RSF’s management.
In Omdurman, chants of “one military, one folks” broke out, an eyewitness advised the AFP information company.
