The Sudanese army has said that it repelled an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Babanusa city of the West Kordofan state, south of the country.
In a statement on the US social media company on Tuesday, an army spokesperson accused the RSF of targeting Babanusa daily with artillery shelling and “strategic drones,” despite a unilateral ceasefire that the rebel group had previously declared.
The army forces “decisively repelled” a new attack that was launched on the city on Monday, the spokesperson added.
According to the Babanusa Emergency Room, a local relief committee, around 177,000 residents have fled the city due to ongoing RSF bombardments on Babanusa, which has been under siege for over two years.
The army considered the ceasefire announced by the militant group and its allied forces "nothing but a political and media ploy intended to cover up their field movements."
RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo declared on November 24 a unilateral three-month truce in Sudan, even though his forces expanded control in Darfur and Kordofan states and carried out attacks on civilians.
The spokesperson affirmed the army’s commitment to international humanitarian law, the protection of civilians, and the facilitation of humanitarian work, noting that “they will not allow the exploitation of the humanitarian situation as a cover for military movements that worsen the crisis.”
There was no immediate comment from the RSF on the army statement.
Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, in turn, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and centre, including the capital, Khartoum.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, according to the World Health Organisation.
