The military says it is working to ‘clean up the remaining rebel pockets’ inside the capital of Gezira state.
Published On 11 Jan 2025
The Sudanese military and allied armed groups have entered Wad Madani, pushing out the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary from the strategic city in Gezira state, according to the army.
In a statement on Saturday, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) “congratulated” people on “our forces entering the city of Wad Madani this morning” after more than a year of RSF control.
“They are now working to clean up the remaining rebel pockets inside the city,” the statement said.
The office of SAF-allied government spokesperson and Information and Culture Minister Khalid al-Aiser said the army had “liberated” the city.
The army posted a video that appears to show soldiers inside the city the RSF had held since December 2023.
In a speech shared on Telegram, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF leader widely known as Hemedti, acknowledged defeat but insisted that the battle was not over.
“We lost Wad Madani, but we will reclaim it. People just need to regroup, reorganise and reassess themselves,” he said.
Hemedti attributed the defeat to what he described as the army’s reliance on Iranian drones and fighters from Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
The SAF and the RSF have been at war since April 2023, causing what the United Nations calls the world’s worst displacement crisis and declarations of famine in parts of the Northeast African country.
Wad Madani is strategic because it is a crossroads of key supply highways linking several states, and is the nearest key city to the capital, Khartoum.
Army ‘in most parts of Wad Madani’
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said the SAF had been advancing towards the city in recent days.
“They have been taking over villages in the south and southeast of the [Gezira] state until this morning when they took over Hantoub Bridge – a decisive bridge that leads into the city,” she said.
“The army is now