The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seized another strategic Sudanese army garrison in Blue Nile state after heavy fighting around Jabal Kadam, extending a series of recent advances by the paramilitary force and its allies along Sudan’s southeastern front.
RSF forces took control of Jabal Kadam, in the Bakori area east of Kurmuk, on Wednesday, following clashes with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied formations. Videos circulated on social media showed RSF fighters inside army positions at the site, along with military vehicles, ammunition and other equipment captured during the fighting.
The takeover came after several days of competing claims over control of the area. The army’s 4th Infantry Division had earlier said its forces repelled an RSF attack and remained in full control of Jabal Kadam, saying the attackers suffered heavy losses in personnel and equipment.
However, subsequent footage released by RSF fighters and verified by Sudan War Monitor showed them inside military positions at Jabal Kadam and displaying captured heavy and light vehicles as well as an army ammunition store.
Other footage showed prisoners whom RSF fighters identified as Tigrayan combatants who had participated in the fighting alongside the Sudanese army. Their identities and circumstances could not be independently established from the footage.
This video circulated by RSF fighters appears to show a detainee being beaten after his capture. The fighters identify him in the footage as a TPLF officer who was allegedly fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Sudan War Monitor could not independently verify his identity, affiliation or the claim that he fought alongside the army.
The Islamist Al-Baraa bin Malik militia, which fights alongside the Sudanese military announced in a statement seen by Sudan War Monitor the deaths of six of its members during the Jabal Kadam battles.
Among those identified as killed were Amjad al-Tom, Ammar Mohamed al-Mahi, al-Miqdad Yousif al-Nour, Amjad Mahdi al-Tom, Abdulmajid Kamal Abdulmajid and Hassan Awad al-Karim Bashir.
Images circulated by RSF fighters also included documents belonging to Mohamed Elias Hassan Mohamed, known as “al-Shaigi,” an active member of the Al-Baraa bin Malik Corps. RSF-linked accounts said he had also been killed, although his death has not been independently confirmed.
Authorities in Kurmuk had earlier presented a different account of the fighting, saying the army and allied forces carried out operations around Jabal Kadam and inflicted significant losses on the RSF.
Pro-army platforms also claimed that SAF forces had secured the position, shot down several drones and captured RSF military equipment.
The competing accounts followed days of fighting over the garrison, which has become an important position on the eastern Kurmuk front. A Sudanese military analyst interviewed by Radio Tamazuj described the area as strategically important because of its location near the Ethiopian border and its value for surveillance and movement along the frontier.
Jabal Kadam lies along a wider military corridor linking Kurmuk, Geissan and Roseires localities. It is located on the western bank of the Blue Nile near the Ethiopian border, north of Geissan town, which fell to the RSF about two months ago.
Its capture adds to recent RSF and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) gains across Blue Nile, where the allied forces have taken a series of army positions in recent weeks.
In late August, the RSF-SPLM-N alliance claimed control of the Bakori and Sirkum garrisons southeast of Damazin. The alliance has since announced further gains around Kurmuk, while the army has sent reinforcements to Blue Nile in an effort to strengthen the 4th Infantry Division and contain the advance.
The latest fighting comes as pressure increases on army positions protecting Damazin and the Roseires area. Blue Nile is strategically important because it borders Ethiopia and South Sudan and contains the Roseires Dam, one of Sudan’s main hydroelectric installations.
The Sudanese army and the RSF have been at war since April 2023, but Blue Nile has emerged as an increasingly active front this year as the RSF and the SPLM-N faction led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu expanded operations along Sudan’s southeastern border.
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