On January 31, 2025, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), announced intentions to "expel" the Sudanese army from Khartoum, acknowledging for the first time the setbacks his forces have faced in the capital.
In a rare television address, Dagalo, known as "Hemedti," urged that the army should not assume they have entered key military sites in the city. Last week, the RSF dismissed claims that the army had lifted the blockade on the Jili oil refinery, the largest in Sudan, describing such reports as misinformation.
Sudanese army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan returned to the general command headquarters in Khartoum, which he had abandoned in August 2023 due to RSF control. Dagalo vowed that army forces would not remain in these strategic locations for long, promising to drive them out as he had done previously.
Al-Burhan, once an ally of Dagalo, inspected the military headquarters on Sunday. Throughout the ongoing conflict, which began in April 2023, Dagalo has limited his public appearances, primarily communicating through audio recordings shared on social media.
At the start of the war, RSF forces captured significant areas of Khartoum and advanced southward, seizing the state of Al-Jazeera and its capital, Wad Madani, which the army regained control of this month. The army has launched assaults on Khartoum, entering the northern sector of the capital, Bahri, previously held by the RSF.
Military sources reported ongoing clashes in the Kafouri neighborhood, one of the last RSF strongholds in eastern Bahri. Dagalo claimed in his speech that there were "four battles in Bahri," asserting that his forces would emerge victorious.
On January 30, the Sudanese army announced it had regained control of the key city of Um Rawaba in North Kordofan state, which had been under RSF control since May 2023. Um Rawaba is strategically located along a major highway connecting North Kordofan to central Sudan and is the second-largest city in the state, approximately 480 kilometers southwest of Khartoum.
This recovery comes as the army also reported progress in the northern sector of Khartoum (Bahri). Both sides of the conflict face accusations of war crimes, especially targeting civilians and conducting indiscriminate shelling of homes, markets, and hospitals, while obstructing humanitarian aid.
Before leaving office, former U.S. President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Burhan, accusing the Sudanese army of attacking schools, markets, and hospitals, and using food deprivation as a weapon of war. These sanctions followed earlier measures against Dagalo, whose forces were accused of committing genocide.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands dead and over 12 million displaced, while millions face the brink of famine.