Sudan war

Sudanese military officials say they’ve broken through a siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of the South Kordofan capital of Kadugli. It’s the military’s second major advance in the Kordofan region in less than a week.

People who fled attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan are enduring tough conditions at a displacement camp in the north where funding cuts are making life harder for its new residents. Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan is there.

More than nine million people have been internally displaced in Sudan since fighting began between the Sudanese army and the RSF in 2023. Visiting a camp, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown warns of scarce resources and growing dangers for civilians.

Celebrations as flight carries dozens of passengers from Port Sudan to Sudanese capital.

The international airport in Khartoum has received its first scheduled commercial flight in more than two years as the Sudanese government continues to assert its control over Sudan’s capital city after years of fighting.

The Sudan Airways flight travelled to Khartoum from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan on Sunday, carrying dozens of passengers.

Reporting from near the runway where the flight had landed, Al Jazeera’s Taher Almardi described scenes of jubilation following the arrival of the plane.

He said the reopening of the airport will help connect the capital to other regions in Sudan, with officials saying the facility is now ready to welcome as many as four flights daily.

Sudan Airways said in a statement that the flight, which was announced on Saturday with ticket prices starting at $50, “reflects the return of spirit and the continuation of the connection between the sons of the nation”.

The Sudanese military announced regaining full control of the capital from its rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, in March of last year.

Last month, Sudan’s army-aligned authorities moved the government’s headquarters back to Khartoum from their wartime capital of Port Sudan, which has also housed the country’s international airport since the early days of the war that began in April 2023.

Khartoum International Airport has come under repeated attacks, including an RSF drone assault in October that Sudanese officials said was intercepted.

On October 22, the airport said it had received a Badr Airlines flight, which was not pre-announced. But no further operations of commercial flights resumed until Sunday.

The war started as two top generals – Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the military, and Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the RSF chief – and their forces clashed for power and control over Sudan’s resources.

The fighting has ravaged towns and cities across Sudan, killing tens of thousands of people and forcing millions of others from their homes.

Violence continues to rage in central and western Sudan, particularly in Darfur, where the war has led to mass displacement and a humanitarian crisis.

“In Darfur today, reaching a single child can take days of negotiation, security clearances, and travel across sand roads under shifting frontlines,” Eva Hinds, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in a statement on Friday.

“Nothing about this crisis is simple: every movement is hard-won, every delivery fragile.”

Dilling, a key route for supply lines, had under the paramilitary group’s control for nearly two years.

Sudan’s military says it has broken a nearly two-year siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a key town in the Kordofan region, gaining control over major supply lines.

In a statement late on Monday, the military said it had opened a road leading to South Kordofan province’s Dilling town.

“Our forces inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, both personal and equipment,” the statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war with the army for control of Sudan for nearly three years.

Dilling lies halfway between Kadugli – the besieged state capital – and el-Obeid, the capital of neighbouring North Kordofan province, which the RSF has sought to encircle.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from the Sudanese capital Khartoum, described the army’s takeover of Dilling as a “very significant gain” that may lead to more advances in the province.

“The army is trying to make use of this momentum to take territory not just from the RSF, but also from its ally, the SPLM-N, led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, which controls territory and has forces in South Kordofan,” Morgan said.

Paramilitary troops were likely to fight back and attempt to retake the lost territory by relocating fighters from el-Obeid and Kadugli, according to Morgan.

Morgan added that the humanitarian situation in Dilling would likely improve as the army will now be able to bring in medical supplies, food and other commercial goods that had been prevented from entering during the RSF’s siege.

After being forced out of Khartoum in March, the RSF has focused on Kordofan and the city of el-Fasher, which was the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region until the RSF seized it in October.

Reports of mass killings, rape, abductions and looting emerged after el-Fasher’s paramilitary takeover, and the International Criminal Court launched a formal investigation into “war crimes” by both sides.

Dilling has reportedly experienced severe hunger, but the world’s leading authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, did not declare famine there in its November report because of a lack of data.

A United Nations-backed assessment last year already confirmed famine in Kadugli, which has been under RSF siege for more than a year and a half.

More than 65,000 people have fled the Kordofan region since October, according to the latest UN figures.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis. At its peak, the war had displaced about 14 million people, both internally and across borders.