The Rapid Support Forces have declared full control over the strategic town of Babnusa in Sudan's West Kordofan, a claim flatly denied by the Sudanese army as fierce fighting engulfs the region.
On Monday, the RSF announced it had overrun Babanusa, calling it the army's final garrison in the oil-rich western state. The group said it launched the offensive in response to a surprise attack by Sudanese forces, despite a unilateral ceasefire it had declared just days earlier.
“Our allied TASIS Forces executed a precise military operation that liberated the 22nd Division and the entire city of Babanusa,” the RSF said in a statement, claiming it had “neutralized threats to civilians across the area.”
On Nov. 13, the RSF had already claimed to have seized all strategic sites in Babanusa, with its militia fighters' encircling the city.
The Sudanese army, however, rejected the RSF’s version of events. In a statement issued Tuesday, it said its troops had “forcefully repelled another RSF assault on Babanusa,” accusing the armed militia of subjecting the town to relentless artillery barrages and drone strikes.
“Hemedti's so-called truce is nothing more than political theater and media disinformation,” the army said, referring to RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. It insisted the military remains committed to international humanitarian law, the protection of civilians, and the delivery of aid—but warned that it would not allow the humanitarian crisis to be manipulated for military advantage.
At least 40 people were killed over the weekend in the town of Kumu, South Kordofan, after aircraft and drones pounded the area. Both the RSF and a local human rights organization blamed the army for the attack.
On Sunday, the RSF directly accused Sudanese forces of launching drone strikes on the area, part of a broader military campaign against territory held by allied rebel factions.
A spokesperson for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N), which is aligned with the RSF, told AFP that army drones and warplanes bombed the town of Kauda and surrounding rebel-held areas on 29 November.
According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, more than 5,000 people were forced to flee villages across South Kordofan in November alone due to escalating violence and insecurity.
The RSF has continued to push aggressively across western and southern Sudan. In October, the group said it seized control of the city of El-Fasher after intense fighting, including the army’s Sixth Division headquarters.
The following day, army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan confirmed the retreat, saying troops had pulled back to “avoid further bloodshed.”
In the aftermath, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations accused the United Arab Emirates of “waging undeclared war” on Sudan by arming and financing the RSF, which has been accused of carrying out atrocities across the country. The United Nations reported receiving “disturbing accounts” of RSF fighters executing civilians in the streets of El-Fasher following the city's fall.
