A field commander in the Sudanese army announced control over the city of Qatina, north of White Nile State, and expanded its advance in the capital, Khartoum.
An informed source in the army confirmed that a force coming from the east entered the heart of the city yesterday morning, while forces coming from the south are besieging pockets of the Rapid Support Forces.
Qattina is about 50 kilometers from the southern borders of Khartoum State, and has a strategic location on the road linking Khartoum to the south and west of the country.
According to media sources, more than 3,000 people have been displaced from the villages of Qatina in White Nile State and others from the outskirts of Khartoum to the south towards the town of Abu Qota, northwest of Al-Jazeera State.
This displacement movement came as a result of acts of violence and killing that the Rapid Support Forces are accused of committing, amid escalating complaints from the displaced about the difficult conditions they are living in, especially with regard to the lack of food and treatment.
The Sudanese army was also able to retake the town of Al-Kurgol in South Kordofan State, west of the country, which was under the control of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu.
A military source indicated that the recapture of Al-Kurgol will contribute to lifting the siege of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State, and linking it to the city of Dilling.
Meanwhile, a military source said that the Sudanese army’s warplanes bombed Jabal Kordofan, southeast of the city of Al-Abyad in North Kordofan, repeatedly, indicating that these strikes targeted sites where the Rapid Support Forces are entrenched.
The same source said that the army is working to link the city of Al-Abyad in North Kordofan with the cities of central Sudan.
Last Thursday, the Sudanese army announced that the armored corps forces took control of the Al-Sajana area, located south of central Khartoum, after battles with the Rapid Support Forces.
This is the first time that the army has reached the southern entrance to central Khartoum, and thus it has come close to encircling central Khartoum, where its forces have been in the area west of the city for weeks, as well as east of it, where the army command headquarters is located.
In Khartoum State, which consists of three cities, the army now controls 90% of the city of Bahri (north), most parts of the city of Omdurman (west), and 60% of the depth of the city of Khartoum, which is in the middle of the state and contains the presidential palace and the international airport, and which are almost surrounded by army forces, while the Rapid Support Forces are still in the eastern and southern neighborhoods of the city.
