Celebrations in Sudan’s Wad Madani as army takes over strategic city

WAD MADANI, Sudan, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Civilians and soldiers celebrated in Wad Madani, the capital of Sudan‘s El Gezira state, after it was recaptured by the Sudanese army from the paramilitary Rapid Support Services, marking a possible turning point in a devastating near two-year civil war.

“We are so happy, we can’t express ourselves,” said one woman on Sunday, as soldiers shot into the air and people cheered on the streets. “A whole year we have been squeezed, we haven’t been able to breathe.”

The war began in the capital Khartoum in April 2023 over the integration of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Services (RSF). It has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, pushing more than 12 million people out of their homes, and plunging half of the population into hunger.

The RSF’s occupation of El Gezira turned the fertile state into one at risk of famine. Its tight-knit villages were emptied out by violent raids as fields lay fallow or were set on fire, residents and eyewitnesses have said.

The RSF denies the accusations and says it is fighting rogue actors who are committing abuses.

The army’s ability to regain full control of the state would be pivotal in its attempts to choke the RSF’s supply lines to Khartoum and the army-controlled eastern half of the country. The RSF still controls most of the capital.

MORALE BOOST

“The SAF’s capture of Wad Madani boosts its own morale and puts large RSF contingents at risk of encirclement in the area,” said Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

“It also frees the SAF to intensify pressure on Khartoum before potentially shifting its focus westward,” he said, while warning that the RSF could launch a counteroffensive on al-Fashir, the army’s last remaining holdout in the western Darfur region.

“This is a big victory that we thank God for, but we are not stopping, we are going swiftly, we are in a hurry, and God-willing soon every inch of Sudan will be cleansed,” General Shams el-Din Kabbashi, deputy leader of the armed forces, told troops and civilians in Madani.

The bodies of RSF soldiers could be seen on the road and bridge leading into the city, but eyewitnesses reported few clashes inside Madani.

The relatively swift takeover comes after weeks of advances by the army in surrounding villages, newly equipped in recent months with fresh armaments and new recruits to allied forces.

HELPED BY DEFECTORS

The Joint Forces, a collection of former rebel groups, as well as Sudan Shield, led by RSF defector Abuagla Keikal, participated in the assault.

The RSF chose to withdraw after being overwhelmed in the lead-up to the takeover, sources in the paramilitary said. They added that its soldiers were exhausted by airstrikes and by dwindling stocks of ammunition and supplies.

They withdrew northwards towards other towns in the state and Khartoum, eyewitnesses said, chased by army airstrikes.

Fiercer fighting could be expected as the RSF fights to maintain control of Khartoum, where the army has made gains, the RSF sources said.

Many of the paramilitary’s fighters come from militias and tribal groups outside of Gezira and had little will to fight for the country’s centre, the RSF sources added.

Residents said there had been extensive looting.

“If we have just 1000 pounds ($0.40) they tell us to hand it over. They exhausted and humiliated us,” said lawyer Ahmed Abdelqadir, who along with other women and children cheered for the SAF soldiers as they drove through the town.

The paramilitary soldiers who roamed through the town raided homes and killed the residents if they didn’t find anything, she said.

“They left us with nothing.”