Sudanese army battles RSF for control of oil refinery near Khartoum. sudan war news
Fighting was also reported in al-Fashar after the RSF issued a 48-hour ultimatum for the army to abandon its last stronghold in the country.
The Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) are engaged in fighting near the Al-Jili oil refinery, north of the capital Khartoum.
The Sudanese army said it reached the vicinity of a strategically important refinery on Wednesday, following a multi-pronged offensive north of Khartoum, with reports of direct clashes with the RSF.
Sudanese social media activists reported smoke covering the sky over vast areas of Khartoum, with witnesses broadcasting footage of the Sudanese army taking control of the entrance to the city.
“Over the past few days, the army has been launching a serious offensive, advancing towards the refinery,” Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said.
“It’s clear that the military is trying to gain control, trying to take as much territory as possible… but it has yet to gain control of the refinery.”
Fighting was also reported in al-Fashar, with tensions rising earlier in the week after the RSF issued a 48-hour ultimatum for Sudanese forces to leave the town. According to a military source who spoke to Al Jazeera, following the expiration of the ultimatum, the army launched airstrikes on RSF positions.
The source also reported clashes around the Zarqa building complex in Khartoum North, with both sides using heavy weapons.
South Sudan spillover
Sudan was plunged into conflict in April 2023, when long-running tensions between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo escalated into a conflict that has displaced some 12 million people.
As the war continues, the RSF and the Sudanese army have accused each other of war crimes, including targeting civilians and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, resulting in thousands of deaths.
More than a million people have fled the Sudanese war into neighboring South Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday. It said the majority of the millions of people crossing the border are South Sudanese citizens who previously fled civil war in the world’s newest country.
In a separate development, South Sudanese authorities suspended access to social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok for at least 30 days after videos of alleged killings of South Sudanese civilians sparked unrest in Sudan’s Gezira state. .
Rioting broke out across South Sudan, including the capital Juba, in retaliation for the alleged involvement of the Sudanese military and affiliated groups in the Gezira killings last week, leaving at least 16 Sudanese civilians dead.
Napoleon Adok, head of the National Communications Authority, wrote to internet service providers on Wednesday and ordered them to cut services by midnight, saying the turmoil in Sudan had “exposed the South Sudanese population to unprecedented levels of violence.” has suffered”.
