Sudan’s army says it has captured a key city in the country’s east, one of its biggest successes so far in a nearly two-year war against rebels.
Images on social media showed people celebrating in the streets as army soldiers entered the town of Wad Madani.
The leader of the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, acknowledged the loss in an audio message.
His confession was angry and incoherent, attributing the defeat to the military’s air superiority and use of Iranian-made drones.
But he vowed to keep fighting until victory, even if it took another twenty years.
Wad Madani is the capital of Al Jazira State and is located 140 kilometers south of the country’s capital Khartoum.
In April 2023, violence broke out between the military and the RSF, after days of tension as members of the RSF were redeployed across the country in a move that the military saw as a threat.
The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives. And in what the United Nations has called one of the “world’s largest displacement crises,” about nine million people have been forced to flee their homes.
The country is also falling into famine, with 24.6 million people – about half the population – in urgent need of food aid, experts say.
Earlier this month, the US sanctioned RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo after he accused the group of committing genocide.
Officials said he was being punished for his role in “systematic” atrocities against the Sudanese people during the 20-month conflict.
