How one highway could determine Sudan’s war — and the future of its fractured regions
PORT SUDAN: Along the road leading west from Sudan’s capital, past the sprawling urban area of Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman toward the regional center of El-Obeid, the burned-out remains of fuel tankers and cargo trucks sit beside the asphalt, their metal frames blackened and twisted by attacks.
At some points, the wreckage is the only indication that this was once one of Sudan’s important commercial arteries. Fuel stations stand abandoned, their pumps and canopies damaged. Drivers who continue to make the journey have taken to covering tankers in mud, turning their vehicles from bright metal targets into dull shapes against the landscape.
The roughly 350-km corridor runs through Sudan’s interior toward Kordofan, Darfur and the western borderlands. It carries fuel, food, livestock, commercial goods and military supplies, while providing a route toward western regions where the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary force fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023, maintains major strongholds.
For the SAF, the road offers a direct supply route into El-Obeid and a potential platform for operations farther west. For the RSF, disrupting it can isolate the city, slow military reinforcements and make the movement of essential goods increasingly expensive and dangerous.
