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Daglo says reins released
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo told his fighters Monday to consider themselves "unleashed" in their war against the army after the Sudanese army pushed the RSF west off the 400-kilometer highway connecting Khartoum with El-Obeid.
“Khartoum (Fides Agency) – The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced that they have regained control of the highway linking the capital Khartoum to El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan”
Al-Monitor said Daglo’s parallel administration released a video message a day after losing the key highway, with Daglo telling fighters, "From today, I no longer hold the reins, I have released the reins to you," as the UN warned RSF fighters could commit mass atrocities in Kordofan.
France 24 reported that after the army loosened the RSF’s grip on El-Obeid by retaking control of the strategic road leading to Khartoum, Daglo said he was "no longer holding the reins of his fighters."
Al-Monitor also said the UN has for weeks warned RSF fighters could commit mass atrocities in Kordofan as they sought to encircle El-Obeid, and it described the war since April 2023 as having killed upwards of 200,000 people, according to aid workers.
Highway opens, drones hit
Al Jazeera said the Sudanese army announced it had recaptured the Al Sadarat highway on Sunday, and it described the capture as restoring "a direct connection between the capital and Kordofan for the first time in months."
In El-Obeid, Al Jazeera quoted relieved resident Sabreen Mohamed saying, "the highway opening means goods can flow," while also reporting that drone attacks were attributed to the RSF and that the road to Khartoum remained closed to civilians.
The Defense Post reported that at dawn RSF drone strikes tore through two municipal buildings in El-Obeid, leaving the local lawyers’ association and a branch of the Agricultural Bank of Sudan in ruins, with no casualties reported.
Al-Monitor added that drone strikes were reported at dawn inside the city and that local officials attributed them to the RSF, while it said the highway opening was expected to ease the flow of goods into El-Obeid where the UN says hundreds of thousands need aid.
What’s at stake next
Al Jazeera said the highway’s recapture would help the Sudanese army move troops, weapons, fuel and supplies and would also block the RSF’s push to seize El-Obeid, which it described as the capital of North Kordofan state.
“The latest military advance by the Sudanese army and its supporting forces in the central region of Kordofan, and the control of the two areas Um Siyala and Jabra al-Sheikh, located on the 'Export Road' linking the cities of Omdurman and El Obeid, marks a significant battlefield development that redraws the map of current clashes and lifts the isolation of North Kordofan state”
Al-Monitor said El-Obeid has been caught in the crossfire since the war began, noting it was under paramilitary siege from April 2023 until February of last year when the army broke through, and it added that RSF attacks on roads and critical infrastructure have worsened a humanitarian crisis where the UN says only a fraction of the city has reliable access to food.
RFI reported that after two days of intense fighting, the army announced it had retaken localities north of El-Obeid—Bara, Umm Garfa, Umm Sayala—allowing it to secure more than 350 kilometers of the road known as the Al-Sadarat Highway.
The Defense Post said the army advance "opens a second supply route to El-Obeid and beyond," and it warned that the RSF’s drone strikes and the UN’s warning of a repeat of atrocities in El-Fasher in October 2025 could shape what happens next for civilians trapped in the city.
