Sudan Army Breaks Paramilitary Siege on Key Base

Sudanese army soldiers patrol an area in Khartoum North on November 3, 2024. Amaury Falt-Brown / AFP/File
Sudanese army soldiers patrol an area in Khartoum North on November 3, 2024. Amaury Falt-Brown / AFP/File
TT
20

Sudan Army Breaks Paramilitary Siege on Key Base

Sudanese army soldiers patrol an area in Khartoum North on November 3, 2024. Amaury Falt-Brown / AFP/File
Sudanese army soldiers patrol an area in Khartoum North on November 3, 2024. Amaury Falt-Brown / AFP/File

The Sudanese army broke a paramilitary siege on one of its key Khartoum-area bases on Friday, paving the way to also freeing the besieged military headquarters, a military source said.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had since the outbreak of the war with Sudan's army in April 2023 encircled both the Signal Corps in Khartoum North and the General Command of the Armed Forces, its headquarters just south across the Blue Nile river.

"Our forces were able to lift the siege on the Signal Corps," the source in the Sudanese army told AFP.

With a months-long communications blackout in place, AFP was not able to independently verify the situation on the ground.

The RSF could not be immediately reached for comment.

"This victory opens the way to link our forces in Bahri (Khartoum North) with our forces in the General Command," the military source said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A military source had previously told AFP the army was advancing closer to Khartoum North following days of military operations aimed at dislodging the RSF from fortified positions in the city.

This comes around two weeks after the army reclaimed Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, just south of Khartoum, securing a key crossroads between the capital and surrounding states.

The army and the RSF had seemed to be in a stalemate since the military nearly a year ago seized control of Omdurman -- Khartoum's twin city on the west bank of the Nile.

RSF has controlled Khartoum North on the east bank.

They have regularly exchanged artillery fire across the river, with civilians reporting bombs and shrapnel often hitting homes.

The military source said Friday's advance "will secure Omdurman from the artillery shelling launched from Bahri".

Across the northeast African country, the war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and uprooted more than 12 million people in what the United Nations calls the world's largest internal displacement crisis.

Famine has been declared in parts of Sudan but the risk is spreading for millions more people, a UN-backed assessment said last month.

Before leaving office on Monday, the administration of United States president Joe Biden sanctioned Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

That designation came about one week after Washington sanctioned RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo and said his forces had "committed genocide."



Gazans Must Return Home, EU Plans to Tell Israel 

A Palestinian man and two girls stand a mid of the rubble of homes, destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive against Hamas in in Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)
A Palestinian man and two girls stand a mid of the rubble of homes, destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive against Hamas in in Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Gazans Must Return Home, EU Plans to Tell Israel 

A Palestinian man and two girls stand a mid of the rubble of homes, destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive against Hamas in in Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)
A Palestinian man and two girls stand a mid of the rubble of homes, destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive against Hamas in in Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)

The EU plans to tell Israel next week that Palestinians uprooted from their Gaza homes should be ensured a dignified return and that Europe will contribute to rebuilding the shattered territory, according to a document seen by Reuters.

That echoes Arab positions but conflicts with President Donald Trump's stated aim for the US to take over the shattered coastal strip and rebuild it into a "Riviera of the Middle East" while Gazans emigrate to other nations.

The EU, which has been a major aid provider to Palestinians, is to outline its position to Israeli officials in talks in Brussels on February 24 as part of the EU-Israel Association Council, the first such session since 2022.

A document outlining the draft EU position emphasizes both Europe's commitment to Israel's security and its view that "displaced Gazans should be ensured a safe and dignified return to their homes in Gaza".

"The EU will actively contribute to a coordinated international effort to early recovery and reconstruction in Gaza," it said, also calling for full humanitarian access.

"The EU deeply deplores the unacceptable number of civilians, especially women and children, who have lost their lives, and the catastrophic humanitarian situation notably caused by the insufficient entry of aid into Gaza, in particular in the North."

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after fighters from the Palestinian group Hamas stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 48,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste with most of its 2.3 million pre-war population displaced multiple times, humanitarian agencies say.

"The EU strongly opposes all actions that undermine the viability of the two-state solution," the document added, referring to its position that Palestinians should have an independent homeland alongside Israel.