Sudan’s RSF says captured strategic town on Ethiopia border

KHARTOUM: Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces said on Tuesday that it and its allies had seized control of the town of Kurmuk on the border with Ethiopia after “fierce fighting.”
“Elite troops from the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) have succeeded in fully liberating the strategic town of Kurmuk,” the RSF said in a statement.
Its forces also took over two other nearby areas, it said, “following fierce fighting waged since yesterday.”
On Tuesday morning, a representative of the army-aligned government in Damazin, the capital of Blue Nile state where Kurmuk is located, said “the situation in Kurmuk is critical and it’s very difficult for the forces on the ground to hold their positions.”
Fighting began on Sunday around the small border town in the far southeast of Sudan, which the army considers vital because it sits on one of the few roads to Ethiopia.
The faction of the SPLM-N led by Abdelaziz Al-Hilu and allied to the RSF maintains a foothold in southern Blue Nile, a narrow strip of land jutting south between Ethiopia and South Sudan.
From there, it reportedly maintains supply lines from both countries, building on decades-old links.
Ethiopia has denied separate allegations that it is harboring RSF camps.
The war in Sudan, which began in 2023, pits the RSF against the regular army and has left tens of thousands dead, displaced around 11 million people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.