Sudan’s Military Breaks RSF’s Siege of Crucial City 

Sudan's army soldiers celebrate after entering Wad Madani, in Sudan, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Sudan's army soldiers celebrate after entering Wad Madani, in Sudan, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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Sudan’s Military Breaks RSF’s Siege of Crucial City 

Sudan's army soldiers celebrate after entering Wad Madani, in Sudan, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Sudan's army soldiers celebrate after entering Wad Madani, in Sudan, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)

Sudan’s military on Sunday broke a more than yearlong siege on the crucial city of Obeid, restoring access to a strategic area in the south-central region and strengthening crucial supply routes in its nearly two years of war against the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), officials said.

The military also kicked the RSF from its last stronghold in the White Nile province in another setback to the group, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah said in a statement.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country.

The fighting, which wrecked the capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.

Abdullah, the spokesman, said military troops in the al-Sayyad axis managed to reopen the road to the city of Obeid and break the RSF siege on the city which serves as the provincial capital of North Kordofan province. The city hosts a sprawling airbase and the military’s 5th Infantry Division known as Haganah.

A commercial and transportation hub, Obeid is located on a railway linking Khartoum to Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur province. It was besieged by the RSF since the onset of the ongoing conflict in April 2023.

Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim hailed the military’s advances in Obeid as a “massive step” to lift the RSF siege on al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, as well as delivering humanitarian aid to the Kordofan area.

Sunday’s RSF defeats were the latest in a series of setbacks for the group that started in September when the military launched an offensive aiming at recapturing the Great Khartoum area — Khartoum and its two sister cities of Omdurman and Khartoum North, or Bahri.

The military has since captured strategic areas including its own main headquarters and is now close to recapturing the Republican Palace which RSF fighters stormed in the first hours of the war in an attempt to kill military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

The RSF has also suffered multiple battlefield setbacks elsewhere in the country. It lost control of the city of Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira province, and other areas in the province. The military also regained control of the country’s largest oil refinery.

The developments on the ground have given the military the upper hand in the war, which is approaching its 2-year mark with no peaceful settlement on the horizon. International mediation attempts and pressure tactics, including a US assessment that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide, have not halted the conflict.

The RSF and its allies, meanwhile, signed a charter that paved the way for the establishment of a parallel government to challenge the military-backed administration. The move has raised concerns about a potential split of the country.

Cholera spreading to another city

Cholera has spread to Rabak, the provincial capital of White Nile province, according to health authorities in the province. The disease first hit Kosti, another White Nile city, before reaching Rabak, the health ministry said.

A total of 68 people died from cholera in the two cities between Thursday and Sunday, according to the health ministry. More than 1,860 others were diagnosed with the disease, it said.

An anti-cholera vaccination campaign in Kosti and Rabak reached 67% of its targeted people in the last two days, according to the ministry.

The outbreak was blamed mainly on contaminated drinking water after Kosti’s water supply facility was knocked out during an attack by the RSF, the health ministry said. The facility was later fixed as part of the government's efforts to fight the disease.

Cholera is a highly contagious disease that causes diarrhea leading to severe dehydration and can be fatal if not immediately treated, according to the World Health Organization. It’s transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.

Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in Sudan. The disease killed more than 600 and sickened over 21,000 others in Sudan between July and October last year, mostly in the country’s eastern areas where millions of people displaced by the conflict were located.



US Imposes Fresh Sanctions Targeting Iran Oil Trade, Hezbollah

Supporters of Hezbollah carry flags of Hezbollah as they shout slogans during a celebration organized by Hezbollah in front of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, 25 June 2025. (EPA)
Supporters of Hezbollah carry flags of Hezbollah as they shout slogans during a celebration organized by Hezbollah in front of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, 25 June 2025. (EPA)
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US Imposes Fresh Sanctions Targeting Iran Oil Trade, Hezbollah

Supporters of Hezbollah carry flags of Hezbollah as they shout slogans during a celebration organized by Hezbollah in front of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, 25 June 2025. (EPA)
Supporters of Hezbollah carry flags of Hezbollah as they shout slogans during a celebration organized by Hezbollah in front of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, 25 June 2025. (EPA)

The US imposed sanctions on Thursday against a network that smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil and on a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution, the Treasury Department said.

A network of companies run by Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Said has been buying and shipping billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil disguised as, or blended with, Iraqi oil since at least 2020, the department said.

"Treasury will continue to target Tehran’s revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

The US has imposed waves of sanctions on Iran's oil exports over its nuclear program and funding of militant groups across the Middle East.

Reuters reported late last year that a fuel-oil smuggling network that generates at least $1 billion a year for Iran and its proxies has flourished in Iraq since 2022.

Thursday's sanctions came after the US carried out strikes on June 22 on three Iranian nuclear sites including its most deeply buried enrichment plant, Fordow. The Pentagon said on Wednesday the strikes had degraded Iran's nuclear program by up to two years, despite a far more cautious initial assessment that had leaked to the public.

The US and Iran were expected to hold talks about its nuclear program next week in Oslo, Axios reported.

Said’s companies and vessels blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions, Treasury said.

Said controls UAE-based company VS Tankers though he avoids formal association with it, Treasury said. Formerly known as Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading (AISSOT), VS Tankers has smuggled oil for the benefit of the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is designated by Washington as a terrorist organization, it said.

The sanctions block US assets of those designated and prevent Americans from doing business with them.

VS Tankers denied Treasury's assertions and said it will "pursue all legal remedies as necessary." Iran's mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US also sanctioned several vessels that are accused of engaging in the covert delivery of Iranian oil, intensifying pressure on Iran’s "shadow fleet," it said.

The Treasury Department also issued sanctions against several senior officials and one entity associated with the Hezbollah-controlled financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

The officials, the department said, conducted millions of dollars in transactions that ultimately benefited, but obscured, Hezbollah.