Two days of fighting inside a 300-square-kilometer triangle i n North Kordofan ended with the military recapturing five towns and dismantling one of the Rapid Support Forces’ most important logistics corridors, in the largest ground offensive since the military retook Khartoum last year.
The gains secured the Saderat Road linking North Kordofan with Omdurman, reopened a direct supply corridor to North Kordofan’s capital Obeid and removed one of the military’s most immediate vulnerabilities in central Sudan.
A former military officer expects the campaign to continue, saying the remaining RSF-held areas in North Kordofan and West Kordofan still serve as the group’s main supply routes from Darfur.
The military’s confidence was on display on Monday, when Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair and Sudanese military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan toured the newly captured towns and pledged to press the offensive westward.
Hours later, RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo answered with a message to his own fighters, lifting restrictions on his forces’ advance and declaring a new phase of military operations.
By Wednesday, the RSF-led Tasis coalition heading the parallel government in western Sudan said the offensive has effectively ended any basis for responding to international appeals for restraint or a humanitarian truce.
What that means for recent diplomatic efforts remains unclear. It also looms over one of the few developments that offered families of thousands of detainees and missing people reason for cautious hope.
A United Nations initiative to broker what could become the war’s first large-scale detainee exchange was put forward to both sides last month.
Khartoum accepted. And on Sunday, a committee established by the TSC called on families of detainees and missing persons who have not previously filed reports to register their relatives within a week, laying the groundwork for a database that would underpin any future exchange.
The RSF has also begun compiling records of detainees held in areas under its control.
Yet despite the willingness shown by both sides, senior military and RSF sources told Mada Masr that any exchange would still depend on robust safeguards against military exploitation and internationally monitored transfer arrangements.
For all the tentative progress on detainees, Sudan’s political talks remain as deadlocked as ever.
A senior African Union Commission official said the country’s rival political forces have yet to establish even the minimum common ground required to negotiate, whether under Burhan’s planned dialogue or international sponsorship. The remark followed another unsuccessful attempt by the Quintet — made up of the AU, the UN, the Arab League the European Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development — to convene joint talks in Addis Ababa, with the process once again splintering into separate meetings, a format another AU source described as “meaningless.”
The military’s advances in Kordofan this week, following earlier gains in Blue Nile — both bordering South Sudan — have prompted high-level outreach from Juba to try and resolve a growing list of bilateral disputes, as Khartoum can now enter talks from a stronger position, one that could allow it to impose terms with direct implications for South Sudan, a Sudanese diplomatic source said.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’s security affairs advisor Tut Gatluak arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday with a written message from Kiir to Burhan. According to Sudanese and South Sudanese diplomatic sources, Kiir invited Burhan to Juba for a bilateral summit in the coming weeks to discuss a number of unresolved issues, including border demarcation and stalled security and economic arrangements.
The talks with Gatluak turned to another sensitive issue: relations between Juba and Cairo, in which Khartoum has become increasingly entangled. Both Sudan and South Sudan have been watching the recent cooling in ties with growing concern, Sudanese and South Sudanese sources said. Burhan, they added, is keen to preserve stable relations with Juba, mindful that any deterioration could spill over into security along the shared border and further strain the two countries’ intertwined economies.
The day after Gatluak’s visit, Khartoum received another high-profile regional visitor. IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu arrived in the capital on Thursday, his first visit since the war began, to reopen the bloc’s office in Khartoum months after Sudan lifted its self-imposed membership freeze.
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Military’s largest offensive since Khartoum brings major RSF logistics corridor in North Kordofan under its control
Smoke rises after a military airstrike on RSF positions in North Kordofan, July 29. - Courtesy: Sudan Tribune.
Within a 300-square-kilometer triangle in North Kordofan, the military launched its largest ground offensive since recapturing Khartoum last year, retaking five towns over the course of two days and seizing control of one of the RSF’s most important logistics hubs.
The gains secured the 400-km Saderat Road linking North Kordofan with Omdurman and opened a direct supply corridor to the state capital Obeid, with potential consequences for military fronts across western Sudan.
The triangle stretches from Um Sayala in the east to Gabra al-Sheikh in the north and Bara in the south. The RSF used the area to funnel reinforcements from Darfur via the Saderat Road and a web of dirt tracks that allowed it to maneuver and redeploy with relative ease.
On Saturday, the military announced it retook Bara, Gabra al-Sheikh and Um Sayala. A day later, it said its forces also captured Um Girfa and Gerigikh , completing a surprise two-day advance that a military source said had been weeks in the making.
Over recent weeks, the military sought to draw the RSF’s attention elsewhere by shifting forces and activating fronts in western Darfur near the Chadian border, the Northern State desert axis and southern Blue Nile, the military source told Mada Masr. The maneuver, the source said, disrupted RSF planning just as the group was massing troops in North Kordofan for an assault intended to place Obeid under siege.
Meanwhile, military troops and newly acquired equipment were deployed to North Kordofan in preparation for the battle on Saturday, according to the source.
When the operation began, the military, the joint force of the armed movements, the Sudan Shield Forces led by former RSF commander in central Sudan Abu Agla Keikel, the General Intelligence Service, and mobilized civilian battalions advanced simultaneously from three directions, the source said. Forces based in Hamra and Rahid al-Nuba to the east and northeast of the triangle moved west toward Um Sayala, before the Rahid al-Nuba units advanced further west toward Um Girfa, while troops positioned in the forward defenses of Obeid pushed toward Bara, 60 km north of the state capital.
The fiercest fighting unfolded around Um Sayala, where clashes lasted for more than six hours before military forces and allies secured the area. Dozens of RSF fighters were killed or wounded and large numbers of combat vehicles were destroyed or captured, the source said.
The RSF attempted to stabilize the front by rushing reinforcements from Gabra al-Sheikh, but the convoy ran into a series of ambushes and was destroyed before reaching the battlefield, according to the source.
Losing Um Sayala proved decisive as its location serves as the nexus of the wider front, the source said. The defeat there quickly weakened RSF positions in both Gabra al-Sheikh and Bara.
The operation was also carried out under the cover of drones, which helped break up RSF positions and secure the five towns within 48 hours, a second military source told Mada Masr. Military forces faced little resistance, with RSF fighters abandoning Gabra al-Sheikh after brief clashes.
Military and allied forces then carried out extensive clearing operations across the newly captured towns and surrounding villages through Wednesday, arresting dozens of RSF fighters who had fled the battlefield and seizing large quantities of weapons, ammunition and military equipment, according to the source.
Much of the supplies was found in Gabra al-Sheikh, which had served as one of the RSF’s main logistics hubs in North Kordofan, a field source in the Sudan Shield Forces told Mada Masr. The captured assets included jamming equipment, air defense systems, spare parts for combat vehicles and a warehouse stocked with food supplies. Technical teams have since begun cataloguing the equipment.
In statements issued over the course of the offensive, the joint force said RSF losses included 135 destroyed combat vehicles and 54 intact ones, in addition to large numbers of fighters killed or wounded.
The alliance also announced the deaths of its own operations commander, Abdel Aziz Ismail Abkar, and Kordofan axis commander Abdallah Sharaf Eddin Abkar during the fighting.
The RSF, meanwhile, lost Hajj Hussein, commander of Group 142 on the Rahid al-Nuba axis and one of the group’s most influential commanders in North Kordofan, along with Ali Geid, a prominent media figure and commander, and several other field commanders, according to an RSF source who spoke to Mada Masr.
The RSF immediately began regrouping and dispatching reinforcements to Sodary, Um Bader, Mazroub, Eyal Bakhit, Nuhud and Foga across northern and western Kordofan, a field source in the joint force told Mada Masr. The source said military fighter jets carried out intensive strikes against those concentrations on Tuesday and Wednesday, particularly around Um Bader, destroying dozens of RSF combat vehicles.
The offensive has significantly strengthened the military’s position, a former military officer told Mada Masr. Beyond lifting a major threat to Obeid, they said, control of the Saderat Road restores a direct supply line between the city and Khartoum while dismantling one of the RSF’s main logistical strongholds in North Kordofan.
The former officer expects the military to maintain this momentum since the remaining RSF-held areas in North Kordofan continue to serve as vital corridors for supplies arriving from Darfur via desert routes and dirt airstrips.
The military could push west toward Mazroub, Sodary, Hamra al-Sheikh and Um Bader, potentially opening the way toward Darfur. A second axis, they said, could advance through Um Samima before moving on to West Kordofan’s Khawi, Nuhud, Fula and eventually Babanusa.
Following the military’s gains, TSC Chair and military Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan traveled to Um Sayala and Gabra al-Sheikh on Monday alongside the governor of the Darfur region, the governor of North Kordofan and the commander of the Sudan Shield Forces. After receiving operational briefings from field commanders, Burhan pledged to press on until “every inch” of the country had been retaken.
From Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s visit to Um Sayala and Gabra al-Sheikh following the military’s retaking of the areas, July 27. - Courtesy: @sputnik_africa via X.
Grinning broadly, he joined soldiers in the years-old chant, “Fasher is just ahead,” a slogan that predated the RSF’s capture of the North Darfur capital, signaling the military’s intention to carry the offensive westward.
Military Chief of Staff Yasser al-Atta later said Burhan had ordered troops to push toward South Darfur’s Um Dafug, on the border with the Central African Republic. The advance would continue “wave after wave,” he said.
As the military celebrated its gains, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo issued a message to his forces on Monday evening, saying “from today, there is no sleep. To be or not to be … . There is no room for retreat or complacency.”
He also announced what he described as the removal of all restrictions on his forces’ advance, calling it the beginning of a new phase of military operations. Hemedti urged commanders to change their tactics, banned fighters from filming military activity and called for the RSF’s ranks to be “cleansed” of what he described as a fifth column.
On Wednesday, Tasis — the RSF-led coalition heading the parallel government in western Sudan — said the military’s latest offensive had “undermined all efforts aimed at de-escalation” and left it with no choice but to press ahead with combat operations. In a statement, the alliance said the military’s “insistence on military escalation and its attempts to seize new territory at the expense of Tasis” had removed any basis for responding to international appeals for restraint or a humanitarian truce.
The aftermath of the offensive saw attacks on civilians accused of aiding the military. The Sudan Doctors Network said nine civilians were killed and 14 were wounded in an RSF attack on the Gamama area of North Kordofan on Wednesday.
The network said the attack was “reportedly carried out based on accusations that residents were collaborating” with the military.
The assault triggered a large wave of displacement, and the local market, health center and civilian property were looted, the group said.
While one of the military’s main objectives in the offensive had been to secure relief for Obeid, which has faced sustained RSF pressure in recent months, the besieged city continued to come under drone attacks. Three eyewitnesses told Mada Masr that RSF suicide drones flew over the city on Monday. They said air defenses intercepted some of the drones, while others reached their targets. One drone struck the Lawyers House in the city center, causing extensive damage to the building, according to the witnesses.
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Military, RSF prepare detainee records in response to UN exchange initiative
The Sudanese government has launched the first phase of what could become the country’s first large-scale detainee exchange since the war broke out, reviving one of the few confidence-building measures discussed between the two warring parties during the Jeddah talks in November 2023.
Following a proposal advanced last month by Pekka Haavisto, the personal envoy of the UN secretary general for Sudan, the TSC established a preparatory committee tasked with compiling a verified register of detainees. On Sunday, it called on families of detainees and missing persons who have not previously filed reports to register their relatives within a week.
The database is expected to underpin a subsequent exchange process coordinated with the RSF and overseen by international humanitarian actors, covering thousands of captured combatants and civilians detained during the war.
Senior sources from both the military and the RSF told Mada Masr they support the proposal because of its humanitarian importance, but said any exchange would require robust guarantees against military manipulation and for secure, internationally monitored transfer arrangements.
For relatives of those still missing, the committee’s announcement has brought a measure of relief. Speaking to Mada Masr, a relative of a detained person described the development as “a ray of hope” after years of uncertainty and scattered accounts of severe conditions in detention.
Last month, Foreign Minister Mohie Eddin Salem announced the government’s acceptance of a proposal by Haavisto to facilitate the release and exchange of detainees held by the military and the RSF in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Since then, the preparatory committee for detainee exchange has begun laying the technical groundwork. At its first meeting in July, members discussed how detainees would be identified and classified and how judicial, security and humanitarian actors would coordinate throughout the process, according to the Sudan News Agency . They also reviewed plans for medical and psychological support before, during and after any exchange.
The committee’s first public action came on Sunday, when it called on families of detainees and missing persons whose cases have not previously been reported to register them at police stations or public prosecutors’ offices within a week. Those submissions will form the basis of a national database intended to provide the legal and technical foundation for future exchanges.
Compiling that register is likely to be the committee’s most difficult task, a judicial source involved in its work told Mada Masr.
The proliferation of detention sites during the war has made existing records difficult to verify, they said. Moreover, prolonged communications blackouts and the loss of identity documents among many displaced people have forced authorities to rely on unconventional field verification methods, the source said. Public prosecutors and judicial offices have developed detailed reporting forms to try to reduce errors in classifying cases and determining their legal status.
The committee will rely primarily on reports submitted by families, supplemented by information from judicial authorities and humanitarian organizations. The register is intended to serve as the authoritative legal record for matching names, confirming numbers and identifying transfer locations while ensuring that no detainees are not accounted for in the process, the source explained.
According to a Foreign Ministry source, Khartoum agreed to the UN initiative after extensive consultations with the ICRC. The ministry is now working with international partners to establish a robust coordination mechanism that would place all stages of the process under the supervision of the ICRC and the UN, the source told Mada Masr.
A senior military source told Mada Masr that the military’s leadership views the exchange as “a humanitarian and legal file rather than a negotiation item.” The armed forces, they added, have directed that priority be given to civilians detained during military operations.
The source said the directives call for protecting detainees’ basic rights and ensuring immediate medical care for those who are ill or injured.
Preparations are also underway for the exchange itself. In coordination with the ICRC, the military has identified secure transfer routes and established verification procedures intended to prevent manipulation of exchange lists or military exploitation of the process, according to the military source. Any exchange, they added, would be carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, with the aim of ensuring detainees are returned safely to their families.
An RSF leadership source said the group likewise treats the UN proposal seriously, describing it as a necessary humanitarian measure. Officials have begun compiling records of prisoners and detainees held in territory under RSF control, including information on their health, the source told Mada Masr.
According to the source, the RSF is prepared in principle to engage positively with international and regional efforts to facilitate an exchange. But any commitment from its side to facilitate the work of the ICRC and the UN mission, they stressed, is contingent on guarantees that neutral humanitarian corridors will be secured and that the process will not be used for military purposes by the opposing side. Direct international monitoring would also be needed to oversee the handover process and ensure its integrity.
For thousands of Sudanese families, the initiative has raised hopes of progress on one of the war’s painful humanitarian consequences. More than three years into the war, many still do not know the fate of their missing relatives. Families hope the effort c ould not only secure detainees’ release but also build momentum for broader negotiations to end the war.
A relative of a civilian detainee from Khartoum’s Bahri said he was abducted by the RSF during the first weeks of fighting in April 2023. After months without news, the family eventually learned through community networks and former detainees that he had been transported with dozens of other civilians on a gruelling journey from Khartoum to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
The transfer made an already desperate search even more difficult, the relative told Mada Masr, as deteriorating security conditions and widespread telecom outages left the family unable to determine where he was being held or send medical or material assistance.
The relative said the family’s ordeal has been compounded by reports from former detainees describing severe overcrowding in detention facilities in Nyala, shortages of food and clean drinking water and an almost complete absence of medical care, including for detainees with chronic illnesses. Many, they said, have seen their health deteriorate while entirely cut off from their families.
The committee’s decision to begin registering detainees and missing persons has offered the family what the relative described as “an extraordinary ray of hope.” They have already filed an official report and submitted documents identifying his last known place of detention, hoping that international oversight of the exchange process will help secure his safe return.
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IGAD reopens Khartoum office
IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu meets with Burhan in Khartoum, July 30. - Courtesy: @IGADsecretariat via X.
The executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Workneh Gebeyehu arrived in Khartoum on Thursday, the first visit by the regional bloc’s top official since the outbreak of the war.
The visit coincided with the reopening of IGAD’s main office in Khartoum and the restoration of its institutional and field presence in the capital, and included meetings with Sudanese officials.
A diplomatic source at IGAD’s Khartoum office told Mada Masr that reopening the bureau is intended to facilitate direct communication with all parties, allow closer oversight of humanitarian efforts, and coordinate regional initiatives aimed at easing the crisis and restoring security.
The move comes after years of strained relations between the Sudanese government and the eight-member East African regional bloc.
In 2024, Khartoum announced a complete freeze of its IGAD membership, accusing it of “violating national sovereignty.”
The suspension was a response to the bloc’s decision to invite Hemedti to attend its extraordinary summits. Khartoum viewed the invitations as an “unacceptable equivocation between the country’s military institution and a rebel faction, as well as an attempt to grant the RSF international legitimacy at the expense of the Sudanese state,” a Foreign Ministry source told Mada Masr.
In February , following Djiboutian mediation between Prime Minister Kamel Idris and Gebeyehu, Sudan’s Security and Defense Council lifted the self-imposed freeze, allowing Sudan to rejoin the bloc.
For decades, IGAD has played a central role in regional peace efforts in Sudan. The bloc brokered the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the country’s longest civil war between north and south and later joined the African Union and the United Nations in the trilateral mechanism that supported Sudan’s political transition after the October 2021 coup.
A diplomat at IGAD said the bloc’s long and complicated history in Sudan makes its presence in Khartoum essential. IGAD has the regional mandate and legal tools needed to connect the political and security tracks, the diplomat said, adding that a lasting regional solution would be difficult to envision without the organization’s direct engagement from inside the capital.
The Sudanese government is hoping IGAD’s return to Khartoum will shift mediation efforts toward an “internally led sponsorship” model, a senior TSC source told Mada Masr.
The bloc’s return places responsibility on IGAD to assess conditions on the ground and document violations directly, rather than relying on external platforms and closed-door discussions that, in Khartoum’s view, have undermined its neutrality, according to the source.
“We are pushing for any political or humanitarian process to take place under the umbrella of state institutions and with respect for national sovereignty,” the source said. “IGAD must engage with the government as the sole legitimate authority responsible for managing the country.”
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Quintet Addis Ababa talks split again into parallel meetings
The Quintet meets with a Democratic Bloc delegation in Addis Ababa, July 30. - Courtesy: @EUSR_Weber via X.
Once again, the Quintet’s attempt to bring Sudan’s rival political forces together in Addis Ababa has been fractured into separate meetings rather than joint discussions.
The late July consultations, convened by the Quintet mechanism — made up of the AU, the UN, the Arab League, the EU and IGAD — were expected to discuss a roadmap for launching a political process and forming a preparatory dialogue committee.
But rather than joint talks, the consultations have been reorganized into separate sessions with the Sudanese political blocs, a Quintet source in Addis Ababa told Mada Masr. Meetings have already been held with the Democratic Bloc — the military-led government’s main political ally — and the military-aligned National Forces Coordination.
RSF-led Tasis and the opposition Sumud coalition did not attend, and their meetings will be determined at a later time, according to the source.
An AU source said the bilateral format offers little prospect of resolving the disputes dividing Sudan’s political forces. “The meetings are meaningless as long as the blocs do not sit together to discuss the outstanding issues face to face,” the source said. The Quintet, they added, has once again failed to bring the rival groups into a single political process, further delaying any broader intra-Sudanese dialogue.
The outcome closely mirrors the Quintet’s previous consultations in Addis Ababa in June, when plans for exploratory talks on the parameters of a future civilian dialogue likewise dissolved into separate meetings among more politically compatible groups rather than direct discussions between rivals.
Earlier this week, the Declaration of Principles Forces , the coalition led by Abdel Wahid al-Nur’s Sudan Liberation Movement that brings together the opposition Sumud coalition and other political parties, announced it would boycott the latest consultations.
A leader in Sumud, led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, told Mada Masr that the group objected to what it described as a mediation process designed without sufficient consultation with Sudanese political actors, as well as the Quintet’s insistence on including the former ruling National Congress Party, the Islamist current and affiliated groups. The alliance also criticized the prominent role given to parties aligned with the military-led government, arguing that the format reinforces wartime political realities, rather than creating the conditions for an inclusive settlement.
According to a second AU source, invitations were extended to Sudanese parties across the political spectrum, but the source declined to say whether they included the National Congress Party or individuals affiliated with it. The party itself has not publicly acknowledged receiving an invitation.
The Democratic Bloc, by contrast, chose to participate. Unlike during the June consultations, the bloc sent a delegation to Addis Ababa. Spokesperson Nedal Hesham told Mada Masr the bloc regards the meetings as no more than a preparatory step, maintaining that any substantive negotiations should ultimately take place inside Sudan through an “inclusive, independent national dialogue” led by Sudanese actors.
The fragmented talks have been seized on by government officials as further proof of what they argue are the limits of internationally sponsored mediation and more reason to press ahead with the Burhan-led intra-Sudanese dialogue.
A senior TSC source told Mada Masr that “official assessments” in the council concluded that Sudanese civil and political groups operating abroad have “completely failed” to establish a unified platform or a shared political vision. According to the source, repeated rounds of consultations — both among the groups themselves and through initiatives backed by regional capitals and the Quintet — have failed to resolve fundamental questions over participation and transitional arrangements, “deepening political polarization and making betting on externally brokered consensus unrealistic.”
The government will therefore continue pursuing the Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue Burhan first announced in May and has since promoted through meetings with political parties, tribal leaders and other civil actors, the source said.
Khartoum is also reading the latest splits in the Addis Ababa process as the political countermove to the military’s major gains in Blue Nile and this week’s sweeping operation in Kordofan.
A senior government official told Mada Masr that each time the military improves its position on the ground, some external actors and opposition groups become less willing to engage in serious dialogue or introduce new obstacles to negotiations.
The official said authorities increasingly interpret that pattern as a form of “political collusion” intended to delay the restoration of state institutions’ legitimacy. For that reason, the government has decided to continue pursuing its own domestic political process regardless of initiatives led by political groups abro ad, as it no longer views these efforts as a viable path to restoring internal stability.
A senior Sumud official questioned Khartoum’s commitment to implementing any outcomes that might emerge from an internal political process, telling Mada Masr the group remains deeply skeptical of the consultations Burhan has been leading in recent weeks.
The official said that the government is not pursuing the dialogue to facilitate a genuine civilian democratic transition or make meaningful concessions over governance. Instead, the process is intended to provide political cover for legitimizing Burhan’s rule and consolidating the military-backed status quo, the official said, describing it as an early effort to reproduce the existing political order under the banner of national consensus.
A senior AU Commission official, however, said the debate over whether the political process should be led from inside or outside Sudan obscures a more fundamental problem.
The key obstacle, the official told Mada Masr, is that Sudan’s political factions have yet to establish even the minimum common ground needed to negotiate. Deep disagreements remain over the structure of the political process, the participation of Islamist groups and the future role of the military, leaving neither regional mediation efforts nor domestic initiatives capable of producing an inclusive dialogue at this stage.
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24-hour closure of Adre crossing over detained Chadians resolved
Signage at the Chadian Adre border crossing with West Darfur. - Courtesy: The Sudan Times.
Chad reopened the Adre border crossing with West Darfur on Wednesday following security communications that secured the release of two Chadians from RSF custody, ending a day-long closure that briefly severed the main route for humanitarian aid and trade into western Sudan.
On Tuesday, RSF personnel stopped two Chadian nationals in the border area of Adikong in West Darfur, accusing them of photographing RSF military positions and confiscating their vehicles, according to a Chadian military source who spoke to Mada Masr.
N’Djamena treated the detentions as an immediate threat to its sovereignty and the safety of its citizens, closing the crossing “as a precautionary measure and a protest,” and reinforcing security along the border, the source said.
Chadian officials then conditioned the crossing’s reopening on its citizens’ release, they added.
The closure stranded dozens of cargo trucks on both sides of the border, according to three representatives of traders’ committees operating in the area. They said the prices of fuel, food and other essential commodities rose across West Darfur within hours.
Throughout Tuesday, tribal leaders and Chadian authorities held talks aimed at securing the detainees’ release and restoring movement across the border, according to the traders. The negotiations succeeded overnight, allowing the two Chadian nationals to be released and the crossing to reopen on Wednesday.
Commercial trucks, humanitarian convoys and civilian traffic resumed in both directions immediately after the handover, the Chadian military source said.
A senior official at Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission expressed deep concern over the incident, warning that even a brief suspension of operations threatens to interrupt the flow of food and medicine into Darfur. Had the closure dragged on, hundreds of thousands of displaced people would have faced an increased risk of famine, the official said, adding that using humanitarian crossings as bargaining chips in security disputes amounts to a serious breach of international humanitarian law.
A source from the joint force of military-allied armed movements used the incident to argue that it reflected broader failures in the RSF’s management of the border crossings under its control. The source accused the group of repeatedly extorting traders, detaining civilians without justification and disrupting the flow of goods and aid into Darfur.
Pressure on the crossing has not come only from the RSF. Khartoum has repeatedly sought to restrict Adre throughout the war, arguing that the corridor was being used to funnel weapons to the paramilitary group. The government formally banned all shipments through the crossing in July 2024 before reversing course weeks later, when the TSC authorized its reopening for humanitarian deliveries under international supervision. The authorization, initially granted for three months, continues to be renewed, though officials in Khartoum have repeatedly threatened to let it expire.
Adikong, where the two Chadian nationals were detained, has itself come under attacks linked to the military. In February, drone strikes targeted RSF fuel tankers and combat vehicles inside the town’s market, setting off fires and injuring more than 20 people, a former Sudanese official based in the Chadian border town of Adre told Mada Masr at the time.
The Adre crossing lies on one of the war’s most volatile borders, where violence has escalated since the RSF captured Fasher late last year and advanced toward the military’s remaining positions in Darfur along the Chadian border. Ground fighting, drone strikes and armed incursions have repeatedly spilled into Chad, killing and injuring civilians.
Just last week, amid an escalation in RSF drone attacks on the border locality of Tina, a drone crossed into Chad and struck several sites in the Bamina area, including the local market, a former joint force member told Mada Masr at the time. Chadian officials said children were injured, livestock were killed and two vehicles were destroyed, causing panic among residents.
A source on the Chadian side of the crossing said the military expects further confrontations with the RSF unless trained personnel take over security at the border and direct contact between RSF fighters and Chadian civilians is brought to an end. The source said Chad has already reinforced its presence along the border, with guards remaining on heightened alert since April.
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Kiir invites Burhan to Juba summit over outstanding disputes
From the meeting between South Sudanese presidential security advisor Tut Gatluak and Burhan in Khartoum, July 29. - Courtesy: @umutcagrisariii on X.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’s security affairs advisor Tut Gatluak arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday carrying a written message from Kiir to Burhan.
Officials in Khartoum and Juba say the outreach is an attempt to contain disputes that have accumulated in recent months, including growing friction between Juba and Cairo, amid a wider regional realignment driven by the Sudan war.
According to a Sudanese diplomatic source familiar with the talks, Kiir invited Burhan to Juba for a bilateral summit in the coming weeks to discuss a number of unresolved bilateral issues, including the disputed Abyei territory and border demarcation, as well as stalled security and economic arrangements.
The source said Juba views the current moment as an opportunity to restore direct political engagement with Khartoum, particularly following recent military developments along the South Sudan border, including the military’s gains in Blue Nile and its recapture of RSF strongholds in Kordofan earlier this week — a major oil producing region.
These shifts, the source said, are being closely watched in Juba and are shaping its calculations, as they leave Sudan’s government negotiating from a stronger position, one that could allow it to impose terms with direct consequences for South Sudan.
Abyei featured prominently in the talks with Gatluak. South Sudan included the disputed territory among its electoral districts ahead of the country’s December elections, prompting a formal protest from Khartoum and raising concerns that the move could further complicate an already precarious transition.
Aftermath of an attack on Abyei, May, 2011. - Courtesy: UN photo/Stuart Price.
The territory, which straddles the Sudan-South Sudan border, remains one of the last major issues left unresolved by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Under the treaty’s Abyei Protocol, the area was granted a special interim status pending a referendum on whether it would join Sudan or South Sudan. But disagreements over voter eligibility — particularly between the Messiria and Ngok Dinka communities — have prevented the vote from taking place.
Khartoum told Gatluak it objected to South Sudan’s move, the source said, warning that any unilateral action could deepen tensions and risk reigniting disputes between communities in the area.
A political source in Juba said South Sudan views the inclusion of Abyei in its electoral constituencies as an administrative step in preparation for the country’s upcoming election, rather than an attempt to alter the territory’s legal status. The government hopes Sudan’s objections can be addressed through direct dialogue and that the issue does not become another source of friction between the two countries, the source added.
The discussions in Khartoum also touched on another increasingly sensitive relationship: South Sudan and Egypt.
A Sudanese diplomatic source said Khartoum is closely watching the recent cooling in ties between Juba and Cairo, concerned that it could reshape regional dynamics in the Nile Basin and affect the security coordination that has linked the three capitals in recent years.
Part of the strain, the source said, stems from South Sudan’s revision of its security relationship with Egypt, which has included over the past years military training, security cooperation and the deployment of Egyptian military advisors under defense agreements.
In May, after Sudan and Ethiopia publicly clashed over Khartoum’s accusations that drones used against its forces had been launched from Ethiopian territory, South Sudan asked Egypt to close its military base in the Jute-Pagak corridor in Upper Nile State. Juba was concerned about the rapid deterioration in relations between its neighbors and the military implications it may carry for its territory.
The facility lies near the Sudan-Ethiopia-South Sudan border triangle and close to Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, home to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which has long been a source of tension between Addis Ababa and downstream countries Sudan and Egypt.
The Sudanese diplomatic source said the issue has become part of a broader debate inside South Sudan’s leadership over how to navigate growing regional pressure while maintaining its strategic ties with Egypt.
Neither Egypt nor South Sudan has publicly acknowledged a dispute over altered security arrangements. But a South Sudanese diplomat said political communications in recent months have repeatedly addressed the future of military and security cooperation between the two countries amid the regional shifts triggered by the Sudan war.
Juba has also taken note of the fallout from the cross-border Sinai ferry crisis in late June , according to the source.
The Sinai ferry near Wadi Halfa port. - Courtesy: Sudan News Agency via Facebook.
More than 100 South Sudanese were allowed aboard the vessel as part of Khartoum’s “voluntary return” campaign, which repatriates Sudanese nationals coming back from Egypt. The group was told South Sudanese representatives would receive them after they crossed into Sudan. But once the ferry arrived, Sudan denied them entry. When the ferry returned to Egypt, Egyptian authorities refused to allow the passengers back. South Sudan, meanwhile, said it had not been informed of the arrangements in the first place.
Dozens of the passengers remained stranded under difficult conditions until Sudan, Egypt and South Sudan reached an agreement to resolve the situation.
At the time, a political source in Cairo familiar with state decision-making on Sudan told Mada Masr that Egypt was using the stranded South Sudanese nationals to send Juba a message that it would reciprocate what it viewed as poor treatment by South Sudan, a reference to the tensions over the military base.
Although Egypt never publicly linked the ferry crisis to broader political disagreements, the incident was interpreted in some political circles in Juba as indirect pressure from Cairo, according to the South Sudanese diplomatic source.
A South Sudanese government source told Mada Masr after the crisis was resolved that resentment had grown among some officials in Juba, who believed increasing coordination between Cairo and Khartoum had contributed to unnecessary restrictions against South Sudanese nationals and hardline positions by both governments during the incident.
For Khartoum, however, maintaining stable ties with Juba remains a priority. A senior Sudanese official said Burhan views the relationship with South Sudan as central to regional stability and wants to prevent bilateral disputes from spilling into security or border tensions that could further destabilize shared border areas, particularly as Sudan’s war continues and humanitarian and security pressures increase.
The official said Khartoum believes the next phase should focus on restoring joint mechanisms covering border management, oil, trade and the movement of people, while preserving security cooperation to counter armed groups and cross-border smuggling networks.
A former South Sudanese diplomat said the talks reflect the reality that Sudan and South Sudan’s disputes are increasingly tied to wider regional struggles, from Abyei and border security to Nile Basin disputes and shifting power balances in the Horn of Africa. The success of a potential Kiir-Burhan summit will depend on whether the two governments can translate renewed political contact into mechanisms capable of managing those overlapping pressures, they said.
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Khartoum steps up diplomacy with Ankara
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mohie Eddin Salam and foreign and political affairs advisor Amgad Farid attend the opening ceremony of the new Sudanese Embassy building in Ankara. July 29. - Courtesy: @umutcagrisariii via X.
Khartoum has stepped up its diplomatic engagement with Turkey over the past week, dispatching both Foreign Minister Mohie Eddin Salem and Burhan’s foreign and political affairs advisor Amgad Farid to Ankara.
A diplomatic source at the Sudanese embassy in Ankara told Mada Masr the back-to-back visits are part of Khartoum’s effort to turn its close political ties with Ankara into a broader strategic partnership, including reconstruction, defense cooperation, and closer coordination in regional and international forums.
Salem arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for a two-day visit that included talks with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan , and other senior officials.
The visit falls within an intensive diplomatic campaign by Khartoum to strengthen strategic partnerships with key regional powers and secure clear international and regional backing for Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, a senior Sudanese Foreign Ministry source told Mada Masr.
During closed-door talks, Sudanese officials presented Ankara with Khartoum’s reservations over the latest US proposal presented last month, particularly provisions pertaining to troop withdrawals, the source said. They reiterated that any future security arrangements must require the RSF to withdraw from every Sudanese state and city and vacate all civilian infrastructure before any further steps are taken.
Reconstruction featured prominently in the talks. Khartoum is looking to tap Turkish engineering and technical expertise to help restore public services, the source said. Discussions focused on financing and investment mechanisms that would enable Turkish companies to rehabilitate power stations, upgrade water networks, repair roads, bridges and ports, and restore hospitals and schools.
A second Foreign Ministry source said the visit also produced a memorandum of understanding between Sudan’s Institute of Diplomatic Studies and the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s Diplomacy Academy to expand diplomatic training and professional exchanges, alongside broader talks on economic cooperation.
The visit overlapped with Burhan advisor Amgad Farid’s weeklong trip to Ankara beginning July 22, during which he met Turkish officials including Hulusi Akar , the chair of the Turkish Parliament’s National Defense Committee, who reaffirmed Ankara’s support for Sudan, the source at the embassy in Ankara said.
During his meetings, Farid presented the Sudanese government’s vision for the coming phase, which is based on restoring state institutions in parallel with battlefield gains, according to the source.
Turkey significantly upgraded its involvement in Sudan following the fall of Fasher in October 2025, expanding its support for the Sudanese military.
An Egyptian official told Mada Masr at the time that Ankara is pursuing in Sudan a strategy similar to the one it adopted in Libya in 2020 against the Libyan National Army — an intervention that effectively froze the war along distinct eastern and western spheres of influence and ultimately cemented Ankara’s influence in Tripoli.
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The post Sudan Nashra: Military’s largest offensive since Khartoum brings major RSF logistics corridor in North Kordofan under its control | Military, RSF prepare detainee records in response to UN exchange initiative | IGAD reopens Khartoum office | Kiir invites Burhan to Juba summit over outstanding disputes first appeared on Mada Masr .
Sudan Nashra: Military’s largest offensive since Khartoum brings major RSF logistics corridor in North Kordofan under its control | Military, RSF prepare detainee records in response to UN exchange initiative | IGAD reopens Khartoum office | Kiir invites Burhan to Juba summit over outstanding disputes
Aggregated summary from an independent source. Read the original at MadaMasr.