Sudan's RSF overruns army garrison in key Kordofan city

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Monday overran an army garrison in the West Kordofan city of Babanoussa, dealing the army another blow a little more than a month after the capture of a major city in Darfur.

Footage posted online showed RSF fighters celebrating, firing in the air and chanting "Allahu akbar, we are inside the 22nd Division", the name of the army unit that had been defending the city against the RSF since shortly after Sudan's civil war broke out in 2023.

The authenticity of the video clips could not be immediately verified but they seemed to conform to those posted previously when the RSF has captured territory.

The RSF earlier said it had repelled an attack by the army in Babanoussa, despite a unilateral truce declared last week by the paramilitary's commander Gen Mohamad Dagalo.

"Our forces had no option but to exercise their legitimate right to self-defence and to repel the aggression," said the RSF. "We reiterate our firm commitment to the humanitarian truce."

There was no immediate comment from the army on the fate of Babanoussa, a one-time major railway hub that linked western Sudan with the east and north of the country.

The city had been sparsely populated for close to two years, with the RSF in control of most of its districts, a fact that led many to believe its fall into the hands of the paramilitary was only a question of time.

The loss of the city 700km south-west of the capital Khartoum comes less than five weeks after the army lost El Fasher, a major city in North Darfur.

Th