RSF attacks border area with South Sudan
Raid in White Nile disrupts the busy Joda border crossing
Sudan’s civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its erstwhile paramilitary ally, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has extended recently into a new zone around southwestern Sennar State, along the border with South Sudan.
RSF operations in this area are turning the border zone between the two countries into a volatile, contested zone, crossed by soldiers, deserters, refugees, and smugglers. Clashes between the two warring parties have disrupted life in rural towns and farmlands, and threatened a key transportation corridor between the two Sudans.
This border region was a flashpoint during the troubled years before and after South Sudan’s independence in 2011, but it was also a zone of economic cooperation and intermixing, where trade goods, refugees, returnees, and migrant workers crossed from Sudan to South Sudan and vice versa across a relatively porous border.
Sustained fighting in the region, or an RSF takeover, would complicate the already fragile humanitarian and economic situation in South Sudan as much as it would in Sudan.
After losing territory in northern and eastern Sennar in October and November, including the state capital Sinja, the RSF consolidated their troops into Al-Mazmoum and its environs, a rural town and former army outpost in the southwest of the state.
From this redoubt, they have raided into neighboring White Nile and Blue Nile, two states controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The RSF troops in this part of Sennar are cut off from the rest of RSF-controlled territory; their need for fuel, ammunition, and supplies is driving their appetite to raid.
The army, meanwhile, though numerically superior, has prioritized operations on other fronts, particularly Al-Jazira State, leaving these areas vulnerable. On Sunday, the RSF launched a long-range attack on Joda, a border town along the Renk-Rabak road.
While the RSF forces withdrew shortly after the attack, the incident ignited fears of a potential RSF takeover and triggered reprisals by the Sudanese military against South Sudanese refugees in the area, whom they accused of aiding the incursion.
Joda, located in Jabelein Locality of Sudan’s White Nile State, serves as a crucial crossing point into South Sudan and hosts a significant population of South Sudanese refugees displaced by their country’s internal conflict.
According to refugees at the nearby Al-Alagaya camp, the RSF contingent—numbering between 200 and 350 soldiers in approximately a dozen Toyota pickup trucks—briefly occupied an army outpost south of the refugee camp before retreating upon learning of incoming reinforcements from Rabak and Jabelein.
Videos filmed by RSF combatants in the area showed no evidence of intense fighting. However, the hospital in Renk in nearby South Sudan received more than 50 wounded “as a result of fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces in the border areas adjacent to Renk County during the past two days,” the independent broadcaster Radio Tamazuj reported December 11, citing an interview Renk County Commissioner Akoch Jol Achiek.
It is unclear, however, if this fighting took place in Joda or elsewhere.
Below: RSF troops near the Joda border crossing (12.2997, 32.7883)
A resident of Al-Alagaya Camp told Sudan War Monitor that there had been no major clashes during the RSF’s occupation of Joda, adding the RSF later withdrew to farmlands to the east of the camp and did not return:
“They came in the morning, at around 9:00 or 10:00 AM, and when they arrived, there was no fighting. We first heard gunshots from the Joda military base, but it wasn’t gunfire from fighting—it sounded like celebratory gunfire because the soldiers who were there had already left after being informed about the advancing RSF units. There isn’t a large [SAF] force in that area because most of the soldiers moved toward Jabelein [the locality headquarters] at the start of the war. After going to the Joda barracks, the RSF returned to the [refugee] camp, but when they heard that the [SAF] soldiers were coming from Jabelein, they left the area and didn’t come back. They went in the direction of the farms [east of the camp], and there hasn’t been any trouble since. Even those who went to southern Joda, on the South Sudan side, have returned to the camp, and the situation is normal as I speak with you now,” explained one source at the camp.
South Sudan suffered its own devastating civil war from 2013 to 2018, hence why many South Sudanese fled into neighboring Sudan and are still living in this area.
Despite the lack of direct confrontation, SAF forces later retaliated against civilians in Bosin, a nearby village to the north of the camp. SAF troops allegedly opened fire indiscriminately, killing seven people, including two South Sudanese refugees and two Sudanese clergymen. Locals accused the SAF of targeting them on suspicions of aiding the RSF incursion.
Soldiers abandon post and cross into South Sudan
In a separate development, 56 SAF soldiers stationed at Joda fled across the border into South Sudan during the RSF assault, according to a security official in Renk County. He disclosed that the soldiers handed over their weapons to the South Sudanese military before being allowed to return to their base after SAF reinforcements arrived and regained control of the Joda border crossing:
“There were 56 of them (SAF soldiers) who came to the southern side of Joda. They saw the RSF combat vehicles entering their base just north of the border crossing, so they came and handed over their weapons to the SSPDF [ South Sudan People’s Defense Forces] unit stationed at the border crossing, and they were welcomed. Yesterday [Monday], they returned to their base, and I believe they have been reinforced. The situation on their side appears to be completely stable,” the military officer said on condition of anonymity.
The Joda incident occurred alongside a separate RSF attempt to seize the 15th Infantry Brigade of the SAF’s 4th Infantry Division in the Bout area of Blue Nile State. Though the attack failed, it underscored the RSF’s ability to launch surprise strikes.
RSF activity in the area has caught the attention of the Sudanese Air Force, which bombed the Kosovo border area between Tadamon County of Blue Nile State (Sudan) and Renk County of Upper Nile State (South Sudan), injuring three South Sudanese nationals.
Overall, South Sudan remains more stable and peaceful than Sudan. But the country suffered its own civil war from 2013-2018 and remains in a fragile state, as a result of political rivalries, chronic and severe corruption, and a deep economic recession. The latest RSF activities signal a growing challenge for both Sudan and South Sudan as they confront overlapping security crises.
Below: RSF troops patrol the border town of Bout in southern Blue Nile. The cameraman gives the date as December 10, 2024.
News in brief
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a report released Wednesday that Sudan is facing its worst humanitarian crisis ever. According to the report, over half of Sudan's population, or 30.4 million people, urgently need humanitarian assistance, a figure representing 10% of the global need. This crisis is exacerbated by the collapse of health services, with over 70% of health facilities nonfunctional and outbreaks of diseases like cholera and malaria threatening vulnerable populations.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is nearing the end of its landmark trial against Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a former leader of Sudan’s Janjaweed militia also known as Ali Kushayb. Kushayb is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Darfur conflict in 2003 and 2004. Prosecutors allege he played a key role in a campaign of murder, rape, and torture that left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced. The 72-year-old denies the charges, claiming he was a pharmacist caught up in the conflict. Closing arguments in the trial began on Wednesday, with prosecutors, victim representatives, and Kushayb’s defense team presenting their final statements. Over 56 witnesses testified against Kushayb, many anonymously due to security concerns. Three other Sudanese officials charged alongside Kushayb by the ICC, including former president Omar al-Bashir, remain at large. The Darfur conflict erupted when non-Arab tribes rebelled against the Arab-dominated government, leading to a brutal counterinsurgency campaign involving the Janjaweed militia.
The RSF has planted landmines in Khartoum Bahri near the Faculty of Agriculture in Shambat District to hinder the army’s advance, according to a “field report by the Sudanese army,” which was obtained by Darfur 24.
The same report says the RSF’s use of Russian-made Kornet missiles, placed in buildings in Khartoum 2, have hindered SAF from advancing from the Mogran district, where they seized two bridges in September, but failed to break out. Previously, we geolocated videos filmed by RSF snipers in high rises in this area. The report further claims that the RSF deployed elite units in the area.
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