RIYADH: As Sudan’s devastating conflict approaches its third anniversary, the army announced on Tuesday that it has broken the years-long siege on Kadugli, the famine-stricken capital of South Kordofan, in what analysts say could signal a shift in the war’s momentum.
The army’s breakthrough, announced days after a similar advance in nearby Dilling, offered South Kordofan residents a reprieve from a deepening humanitarian crisis that had triggered mass displacement and widespread hunger, sparking hopes that aid could finally resume.
The oil-rich Kordofan region has become the latest front line in Sudan’s conflict, toward which the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shifted their focus after seizing El-Fasher, one of the army’s last strongholds in Darfur, last October.
Tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees are living in makeshift shelters at spontaneous refugee resettlements near the border town of Adré, Chad, with limited access to basic services. (UNHCR photo)
Joining forces with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, which controls stretches of territory in Kordofan and beyond, the Abu Dhabi-backed RSF tightened a blockade that had intermittently isolated Kadugli and Dilling since the war began.
