Darfur

The Sudanese army is redeploying forces to regain territory in Kordofan and Darfur from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reports from the country’s capital, Khartoum, where the government has returned for the first time since the conflict started in 2023.

The Sudanese army is renewing efforts for an operation to retake the Kordofan and Darfur regions from the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as the civil war rages deep into its third year.

The army has been assessing the RSF’s capabilities and resources in readiness for launching the military operation with a large number of military formations fully prepared to launch an attack, it said.

Any full-scale operation to liberate Kordofan in central Sudan and Darfur in the west would surpass the Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) recapture of the capital, Khartoum, in March in terms of the planning that has taken place before the mission, it added.

Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said the Sudanese army had reorganised and redeployed troops in various parts of Kordofan.

“We have also seen the Sudanese army retake control of territories in the Kordofan region as well as launch air strikes and drone strikes on several RSF positions in Darfur and Kordofan,” she said.

“And it looks like these are the preparations or the first steps of that offensive that the army has been speaking about in efforts to regain control of territories in Kordofan and Darfur,” Morgan added.

The SAF on Friday said it inflicted heavy losses on the RSF during a series of air and ground operations carried out in Darfur and Kordofan.

In a statement, the military said its forces conducted strikes against RSF positions, destroying about 240 combat vehicles and killing hundreds of fighters.

It added that its ground forces had succeeded in pushing RSF fighters out of wide areas in Darfur and Kordofan, and operations were ongoing to pursue remaining elements.

Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minnawi said the recent military action by the SAF in Kordofan has prevented the RSF from laying siege on North Kordofan’s capital, el-Obeid.

But Morgan said people on the ground in the Kordofan region were not reassured by these words and want to see more definitive action from the SAF.

“They want to be able to return to their homes with the RSF withdrawing or retreating from the areas that they have taken over. So far, that is not happening,” she said.

In the meantime, attacks continue. A drone attack carried out by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, an RSF ally, on Monday reportedly killed five people in Habila in South Kordofan state.

The RSF’s recent resurgence in the vast regions of Darfur and Kordofan has displaced millions more people.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while the RSF has been implicated in atrocities in Darfur that the United Nations said may amount to genocide.

Recently, the UN described el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, as a “crime scene” after gaining access to the largely deserted city for the first time since its takeover by the RSF in October, which was marked by mass atrocities.

International aid staff visited el-Fasher after weeks of negotiations, finding few people remaining in what was once a densely populated city with a large displaced population.

More than 100,000 residents fled el-Fasher after the RSF seized control on October 26 following an 18-month siege. Survivors reported ethnically motivated mass killings and widespread detentions.

Fierce fighting and global funding cuts have pushed more than 33 million people towards starvation in what has become one of the world’s severest humanitarian crises, nongovernmental organisations said on Friday as the war passed its 1,000th day.

The conflict has displaced 11 million people internally and abroad and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.

Prime Minister Kamil Idris announced on Sunday the government’s return to Khartoum, after nearly three years of operating from its wartime capital of Port Sudan.

In the early days of the civil war, which began in April 2023, the army-aligned government fled the capital, which was quickly overrun by the RSF.

The government has pursued a gradual return to Khartoum since the army recaptured the city.

“Today, we return, and the government of hope returns to the national capital,” Idris told reporters on Sunday in Khartoum.

MSF official tells Al Jazeera South Darfur hospital ‘overwhelmed’ by rapid increase in measles cases.

Displaced Sudanese families in the war-torn Darfur region are grappling with a dangerous measles outbreak that is spreading rapidly, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) official warns.

Dr Ali Almohammed, an MSF emergency health manager, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the group has been “overwhelmed” by measles cases arriving each day at the Nyala Teaching Hospital in South Darfur, where MSF provides paediatric and maternal healthcare.

“We have 25 beds [in] isolation for measles, but every day the number of cases is increasing,” Almohammed said in an interview from Amsterdam.

“The capacity of MSF to respond to all the needs of the people in Darfur is really limited. We cannot cover everything. Yes, we are trying to focus on the most lifesaving medical care, but still, our capacity is also limited,” he said.

The outbreak of measles, a vaccine-preventable virus, comes as violence between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the western region of Darfur and neighbouring areas has surged in recent weeks.

More than 100,000 people have fled their homes in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, after the RSF seized control of the city in late October after an 18-month siege.

The United Nations recently warned that Darfur has become “the epicentre of human suffering in the world” and UN and other humanitarian agencies have stressed that trapped civilians lack medicines, food and other critical supplies.

More than 1,300 new cases

According to MSF, more than 1,300 new measles cases have been reported in Darfur since September.

An extremely contagious virus, measles causes high fevers, coughing and rashes.

It is particularly dangerous for children under age five because it can cause serious health complications, according to a fact sheet from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This week, MSF said that while nearly 179,000 Sudanese children had been vaccinated against the disease over six months last year, they are only a fraction of the 5 million who are at risk.

The organisation said it is not able to operate in most of North Darfur, including el-Fasher, or in East Darfur as a result of the ongoing conflict.

Almohammed also warned that other preventable diseases, such as diphtheria and whooping cough, are now appearing in Darfur with the number of vaccines arriving just a “drop in the ocean” of what’s needed.

According to MSF, shipping vaccines has been difficult due to ongoing violence as well as “significant administrative and bureaucratic hurdles”.

“We urge authorities to immediately eliminate all bureaucratic and administrative barriers to transporting vaccines throughout Darfur,” the organisation said in a statement.

“At the same time, there must be greater urgency from UNICEF to coordinate efforts to increase the transport and delivery of vaccines, syringes and the necessary supplies.”

Attacks on healthcare

Meanwhile, attacks on healthcare facilities in Sudan have worsened the situation for civilians and medical personnel.

On Saturday, the Sudan Doctors Network said the RSF released nine medical workers from detention in Nyala in South Darfur out of a total of 73 health workers who had been detained by the paramilitary group.

The network welcomed the move as a “positive” step but called for the release of all detained medical workers and civilians without exception.

On Friday, the World Health Organization said attacks on healthcare facilities in Sudan have killed 1,858 people and wounded 490 since the conflict began in mid-April 2023.

At least 70 health workers and about 5,000 civilians have been detained in Nyala in recent months, it added.

A day earlier, the Sudan Doctors Network said 234 medical workers have been killed, 507 injured and 59 reported missing since the war began.