Sudanese Army Says Its Forces Have Withdrawn from Wad Madani

Displaced people fleeing from Wad Madani in Sudan's Jazira state arrive in Gedaref in the country's east on December 19, 2023. (AFP)
Displaced people fleeing from Wad Madani in Sudan's Jazira state arrive in Gedaref in the country's east on December 19, 2023. (AFP)
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Sudanese Army Says Its Forces Have Withdrawn from Wad Madani

Displaced people fleeing from Wad Madani in Sudan's Jazira state arrive in Gedaref in the country's east on December 19, 2023. (AFP)
Displaced people fleeing from Wad Madani in Sudan's Jazira state arrive in Gedaref in the country's east on December 19, 2023. (AFP)

The Sudanese army said in a statement on Tuesday that its forces have withdrawn from positions in Wad Madani city, adding that it will investigate the reasons for the withdrawal.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over Wad Madani, a city packed with displaced people and an aid hub, earlier this week.

The war between the army and the RSF has displaced nearly 7 million people, left the capital in ruins, caused a major humanitarian crisis and triggered waves of ethnically driven killings in Darfur.

The two forces had shared power with civilians after the 2019 overthrow of former leader Omar al-Bashir before staging a coup together in 2021 then coming to blows over an internationally backed political transition plan.

The International Organization for Migration says that clashes between the RSF and the army around Wad Madani have led to widespread displacement in recent days.

Nearly 1.5 million have fled Sudan and more than 5.4 million have been forced from their homes internally, according to the IOM, making Sudan the country with the highest number of displaced people in the world.



Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar sl-Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.

Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family's decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall.

“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.”

He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.”

Iran and its armed proxies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.

Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that Tehran did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.