ADF STAFF
After nearly a year under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), West Darfur has become a new front in the conflict between Sudan’s warring generals.
In recent weeks, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and regional militias have scored important victories against RSF fighters, most recently retaking the community of Kulbus. The Sudanese Joint Force, formerly known as the Joint Force of Armed Struggle Movements, reports taking control of Jebel Awum near Sudan’s border with Chad.
The group is allied with the SAF.
The Joint Force includes Darfuri militias Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). The SLM is led by Darfur Gov. Mini Minawi, who has accused the RSF of mobilizing West African fighters to join fighting in Darfur.
The Joint Force took control of the Sudanese-Libyan-Chadian border triangle in July, cutting off a potential supply route for the RSF, which receives weapons and other support from Russian mercenaries via Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the military leader of eastern Libya.
The Joint Force also helped retake the SAF’s Beer Maza military base along with territory north of Kutum in North Darfur in early October. The base was one of the RSF’s most fortified positions. Joint Force field commanders confirmed to Altaghyeer that their fighters had destroyed an RSF mobile unit near Kutum.
The Joint Force spokesman Maj. Ahmed Hussein told Radio Dabanga the actions were intended to cut off RSF supply lines in Darfur.
Based in the West Darfur capital, El Geneina, journalist Alaaeddin Babiker told Radio Dabanga: “Many observers say that the attacks on West Darfur areas are not meant to seize El Geneina but are a diversionary tactic to alleviate the pressure on the besieged city of el-Fasher.”
El-Fasher is the capital of North Darfur. The city has been the focus of months of intense fighting as North Darfur remains the only part of the Darfur region still outside RSF control.
In response to the Joint Forces’ victories in West Darfur, the RSF has deployed large numbers of fighters to Sirba and Jebel Moon, two communities between Kulbus and el-Geneina. The RSF has held el-Geneina since mid-2023.
Since taking control of West Darfur in late 2023, the RSF and its allies have killed thousands of people, according to the international humanitarian group Human Rights Watch (HRW).
HRW reported that the RSF’s attacks were directed at West Darfur’s non-Arab Masalit group, which makes up half the population of El Geneina. Members of the Masalit community have had their homes and businesses looted and destroyed — an echo of the attacks that RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed, committed across Darfur 20 years ago.
The Joint Force victory against the RSF in Kulbus resulted in the destruction of 14 RSF vehicles and the deaths of dozens of fighters, Joint Forces leaders said.
Minawi told the Sudan Tribune that the Joint Force “taught the Rapid Support Forces another lesson that they will certainly not forget.”