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Sudanese Army Continues Military Buildup in Blue Nile

Sudanese Army Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan attends an event in Khartoum on Aug. 15 marking the anniversary of the army’s founding (AFP)
Sudanese Army Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan attends an event in Khartoum on Aug. 15 marking the anniversary of the army’s founding (AFP)
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Sudanese Army Continues Military Buildup in Blue Nile

Sudanese Army Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan attends an event in Khartoum on Aug. 15 marking the anniversary of the army’s founding (AFP)
Sudanese Army Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan attends an event in Khartoum on Aug. 15 marking the anniversary of the army’s founding (AFP)

Sudanese Army Chief of Staff Gen. Yasser al-Atta said the armed forces plan in the coming phase is to deploy troops continuously to the battlefronts, signaling an intensification of military operations in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile.

During an inspection of special forces at a frontline position in Khartoum on Tuesday, al-Atta strongly criticized the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accusing them of systematically committing killings, ethnic cleansing and genocide on ethnic and tribal grounds, according to an army statement.

The chief of staff ordered the continuous deployment of all troop contingents to reinforce forces already positioned in operational areas toward Darfur in western Sudan.

“They killed and exterminated our brothers in El Geneina, North Darfur and villages in Al Jazira in central Sudan, and they continue to this day to kill civilians in West Kordofan,” he stated.

Al-Atta also accused the RSF of exploiting traditional administration leaders, including tribal chiefs and mayors, to recruit children and send them into battle under the pretext of protecting women from killing and rape. He stressed that the Sudanese Army is “a national and professional force that does not fight civilians.”

“We reassure our people in Darfur that we are coming to protect them from the violations of the rebel and lawless RSF, so that they can enjoy security and stability like the states that have been cleared of the rebellion,” he said.

Al-Atta had earlier vowed to eliminate the RSF before the end of this year.

Blue Nile

Last month, the Sudanese Army recaptured several strategic areas in North Kordofan, including the towns of Bara, Jabra al-Sheikh, Umm Sayala and Umm Qirfa, while the RSF retreated to positions it continued to control in West Kordofan state.

The army chief’s remarks came as the RSF continued to strengthen its control over strategic positions in the Blue Nile region of southeastern Sudan after seizing the areas of Bakori and Sarkam in recent days.

At the same time, the Sudanese Army has continued to amass additional troops and military equipment to halt the RSF advance in Blue Nile.

The 4th Infantry Division, headquartered in Damazin, the regional capital, on Tuesday received the first contingent of the Joint Force comprising armed movements that support the army. The troops are to join elite forces deployed in recent days to frontlines around Bakori and Sarkam.

The division’s commander, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Tayeb, said the forces were fully prepared to continue their operations in the region, adding that “the rebellion is suffering successive and painful blows on various battlefronts.”

Humanitarian Situation

Separately, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said humanitarian organizations continue to provide lifesaving assistance in Sudan despite the ongoing conflicts and funding shortages.

The International Organization for Migration, for its part, revealed that 730 people fled several villages in South Kordofan on Sunday.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 2,600 cholera cases had been reported across several states through early August, with Kordofan at the center of the latest outbreak.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the United Nations and its partners were stepping up efforts to combat cholera, as health workers continued to provide treatment, conduct vaccination campaigns and distribute essential medical supplies.

He added that humanitarian organizations were expanding efforts to provide clean water in Kordofan, where a water network rehabilitated with UNICEF support in Abu Jubeiha provides safe water to about 25,000 people a day, including 5,000 displaced people.

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Arab World

New Battlefronts in Yemen Leave Houthis in Disarray

Armed forces celebrate their advances in al-Jawf. (X)
Armed forces celebrate their advances in al-Jawf. (X)
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New Battlefronts in Yemen Leave Houthis in Disarray

Armed forces celebrate their advances in al-Jawf. (X)
Armed forces celebrate their advances in al-Jawf. (X)

The Yemeni army and the National Resistance made progress on the ground on Monday across fronts in the Taiz, al-Bayda, and al-Jawf governorates, amid successive collapses and retreats among the Houthis. Al-Jawf is witnessing tribal mobilization in support of government forces following their field advances.

Yemeni army media announced that government forces secured a tactical breakthrough on the al-Bayda front, successfully liberating the Hayd al-Khazzan and al-Falhan areas up to the al-Nasifa region. The development allows the forces an advantage to sever Houthi supply lines between the central and southern governorates.

The advance coincided with the establishment of control over all hills and plateaus overlooking the al-Zaher district.

The director of media for the al-Bayda governorate, Aref Al-Amari, confirmed that the armed forces have tightened their control over the strategic highlands overlooking al-Zaher.

He noted that forces are currently combing al-Nasifa in preparation for an advance toward the Dhi Naem area, a development that strengthens the position of government forces in the governorate.

Spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces Colonel Maeen al-Nuzaili said the forces are achieving progress and victories on the al-Jawf and al-Bayda fronts as part of operations "aimed at restoring state institutions and ending the Houthi coup."

He called on the group's operatives to abandon their positions with their light weapons to save their lives.

On the western front, the Joint Forces managed to secure a vital artery in al-Kadha connecting Taiz city to the western coast, following the defeat of Houthis stationed in the controlling highlands.

Government forces targeted massive Houthi military reinforcements west of Taiz city, leaving heavy losses in lives and equipment.

Comprising more than 21 military vehicles, they were heading to support the al-Barh and Maqbanah fronts.

Meanwhile, tribes were mobilizing in al-Jawf to support the armed forces against the Houthis. According to local sources, the tribes moved toward the al-Yatma district.

Arab World

Assad-era Syrian Reactor was Configured for Nuclear Weapons, IAEA Chief Says

The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the organization's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 6, 2023 (Reuters)
The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the organization's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 6, 2023 (Reuters)
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Assad-era Syrian Reactor was Configured for Nuclear Weapons, IAEA Chief Says

The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the organization's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 6, 2023 (Reuters)
The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the organization's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 6, 2023 (Reuters)

The Assad-era government in Syria was constructing a nuclear reactor that was configured to produce fissile material for possible use in nuclear weapons, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday.

The “configuration” and the “technical features” of the nuclear reactor under construction in Syria during the leadership of ousted former President Bashar Assad were “very efficient in the production of fissile material that could be directly used for the fabrication of nuclear weapons,” IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said.

“Of course, that was never declared, that was always denied, so, and again, intentions cannot be judged, but that was a very serious proliferation concern that we had, and this has been difficult work,” he told reporters on the first day of a regular meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, in Vienna.

Syria was believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear program under Assad that included a nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir Ezzor province.

Following Assad’s ouster, the new government agreed to give IAEA inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites.

During a visit to Syria in August, IAEA inspectors confirmed that “the cooling infrastructure which has now been uncovered is consistent with that of a nuclear reactor.” Grossi and a team of senior inspectors also visited a previously undeclared site in the country.

Syria notified the agency of the site’s existence in a July 17 letter and invited the IAEA “to cooperate with the Syrian authorities in the inspection and verification of the site and of any nuclear material to be potentially found.”

The IAEA said in its confidential report circulated to member states last Tuesday and seen by The Associated Press that this new site contained “natural uranium metal in the form of fuel rods with cladding.” The agency verified the material and confirmed “the presence of around 73 tonnes of natural uranium metal.”

Grossi said when the inspectors visited the site in August they had to “tear down walls” and go through “very difficult and narrow passages” to reach the nuclear material that had been hidden. The site had “boxes scattered all over the place,” he said.

Grossi said that “the important thing is that this material now is under safeguards” of the IAEA, adding that agency inspectors had managed to install cameras at the location, The AP reported.

Asked if the nuclear material will remain in Syria or be removed, Grossi said that this is “a matter that the Syrian government will have to decide.” He added: “We are not requesting them to do this or to do that. For us what’s important is that we know all the time where this (material) is until the last gram.”

Logan Mintz, a director for nuclear materials security at the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, said that natural uranium metal is not directly usable for a nuclear weapon but it could be “diverted to a covert weapons program that further processes it into plutonium for a nuclear weapon.”

She said that once deemed safe to move, the material could be “transported in certified containers” to a third country that can “safely and securely disposition it into a more chemically stable and more widely used form” for possible use in nuclear power plants.

“As with any transport of nuclear material, this movement would require robust security from theft or sabotage,” she said.

Arab World

Syria Arrests Assad-era General Accused of Deadly Repression

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Syria Arrests Assad-era General Accused of Deadly Repression

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)

Syrian authorities on Monday said they had arrested a former general accused of involvement in the bloody repression of protests in 2011 that sparked the country's civil war and the 1982 Hama massacre.

In a statement, security forces said they "arrested former Major General Mohammed Ali Durgham, a prominent officer in the military establishment during the era of the former regime" of Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in 2024.

They accused him of "issuing direct orders to his units to fire on unarmed demonstrators in the Damascus countryside" after anti-Assad protests had erupted in 2011.

Durgham was a field commander in the army's feared Fourth Division, commanded by Assad's brother Maher al-Assad, between 2009 and 2013.

Human Rights Watch in 2011 quoted a Syrian army defector who said that Durgham was one of the generals who "ordered the troops to shoot at protesters when his unit was deployed to areas in and just outside of Damascus".

He has been under European Union sanctions since 2012.

Bashar al-Assad's crackdown turned the nationwide movement into a 13-year-long civil war that killed more than half a million people.

Authorities said Durgham had started "as a squad commander in the Defense Brigades during the events in Hama Governorate in 1982".

On February 2, 1982, amid an information blackout, Assad's father and then-Syrian president Hafez al-Assad launched a brutal crackdown in the central Syrian city of Hama against an armed Muslim Brotherhood revolt.

Survivors who witnessed extrajudicial executions told AFP that the authorities spared no one, with government forces killing men, women and children.

The death toll of the 27 days of violence has never been formally established, though estimates usually range from 10,000 to 40,000, with some going higher still.

Since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow in December 2024, Syria's new authorities have arrested dozens of former security officials, and trials began in April.

In August, Syria sentenced Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad and five other security officials to death in absentia for atrocities committed during the civil war, the first such ruling under the new authorities.

The former president fled Syria as his government was falling and is believed to be living in Russia.