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The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exchanged shelling of positions in the west and south of the country on Monday. The army continued its advance toward Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, according to Al Jazeera.
In Darfur in the west of the country, strikes targeted the city of Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur, which is under RSF control.
Two witnesses said smoke and flames rose from one of the buildings, while the military source said the targeted building was a warehouse belonging to the RSF, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In the Kordofan region, a senior army source told Al Jazeera that the RSF shelled the headquarters of the Humanitarian Aid Commission in the city of El Dilling on Monday, the second-largest city in South Kordofan state.
The source added that the RSF also targeted humanitarian aid convoys belonging to the commission that entered El Dilling on Sunday, noting that drone strikes also hit other densely populated areas, causing injuries that have not yet been fully counted.
El Dilling has been on the front line between the RSF and the army since the early days of the war in April 2023.
After two corridors were announced last week in its vicinity, the army continued its advance toward Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, according to a military source speaking with Aljazera.
Since the fall of el-Fasher in October, which had been the army’s last stronghold in the neighboring Darfur region, the RSF has focused on Kordofan, a vast and fertile region in southern Sudan.
The United Nations said about 80% of Kadugli’s population, about 147,000 people, have fled the city.
It warned that Kordofan could see violations similar to those recorded in el-Fasher after the RSF took control of the capital of North Darfur, amid reports of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and widespread looting.
The secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said South Kordofan has become the most dangerous front in Sudan and the most neglected.”
“Entire cities are facing hunger, forcing families to flee with nothing,” he added.
Egeland described the situation as “a man-made catastrophe, accelerating toward a nightmare scenario,” noting escape routes are fraught with danger and those fleeing are suffering deprivation and overcrowding after reaching displacement camps.
“We know exactly where this leads if the world looks away again,” he added.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed thousands of people, displaced millions of others, and led to one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states in the western Darfur region, except for parts of North Darfur that remain under army control.
The army holds most areas of the remaining 13 states across the south, north, east, and center of the country, including Khartoum.
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