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At dawn on Wednesday, near Sudan’s southeastern border with Ethiopia, the military started its long-anticipated offensive to retake the Blue Nile city of Kurmuk. Artillery and airstrikes targeted Rapid Support Forces positions as ground troops advanced simultaneously from multiple fronts.
Within hours, the military had entered the city. The RSF and the allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (Abdel Aziz al-Hilu faction) withdrew, ending more than three months of control over Kurmuk — a campaign that had opened a major new front in the war, drawn Ethiopia more deeply into it and triggered a severe humanitarian crisis as fighting repeatedly displaced civilians across the region.
A field source in the military unit that led the assault told Mada Masr that troops moved through Kurmuk in street-by-street clearing operations before quickly deploying around the city to guard against counterattacks.
According to the source and a second military source, RSF and SPLM-N fighters retreated into the surrounding areas, with some withdrawing south toward their remaining stronghold in Yabus while others crossed into Ethiopia.
Since its capture by the RSF in late March, Kurmuk had become Blue Nile’s most consequential security flashpoint. Sitting on the main supply corridor from Ethiopia and serving as a launch point for operations across southern Blue Nile, its loss is a major blow to the RSF, a former military officer told Mada Masr.
But while the battle for Kurmuk appears to have been settled for now, the devastation it left behind will not be resolved as quickly.
“The military victory in Kurmuk places us now before the greater and more complex challenge: addressing the costly humanitarian toll left by the conflict,” a senior Blue Nile government official told Mada Masr.
Nearly 100,000 people have been displaced since late March, most of them from the Kurmuk locality, according to the official. They are now scattered across overcrowded camps, temporary shelters and sprawling makeshift settlements throughout Blue Nile, where authorities, aid workers and displaced families have for weeks warned of catastrophic conditions made even more precarious by the arrival of the rainy season in June.
Yet retaking Kurmuk does not make it ready to receive the tens of thousands of people who fled it. The city’s electricity and water infrastructure, hospitals and health centers have sustained extensive damage, according to the official, who also warned that neighborhoods remain littered with explosive remnants of war. With the RSF and the SPLM-N still controlling parts of southern Blue Nile, any return must proceed cautiously.
Authorities’ plan begins with military engineering teams clearing neighborhoods before emergency repairs to water, electricity and health services can begin. Only after those steps are completed would displaced residents be allowed to return in phases.
But the resources needed to carry out that plan remain scarce. Even with assistance from Sudan’s humanitarian authorities and international agencies, support falls well short of the needs on the ground, the official said.
Government agencies and humanitarian organizations are simultaneously scrambling to contain a growing list of crises across the increasingly precarious North Kordofan front, where weeks of RSF drone attacks have led to acute fuel and water shortages in Obeid while, to the west near Bara, a cholera outbreak is spreading faster than the state’s already overstretched health system can contain it, medical sources and residents told Mada Masr.
Farther west, along Sudan’s border with Chad, renewed fighting is once again driving civilians from their homes.
Following the military’s capture of Kulbus last week, the RSF has begun redeploying fighters toward the strategic border town in West Darfur in an apparent effort to recover a key logistical hub and contain the military’s advance toward the state capital Geneina.
A former West Darfur official told Mada Masr that large RSF reinforcements, including allied tribal militias, have arrived this week from Nyala, Fasher and fronts in Kordofan. The buildup has fueled fears of another battle for Kulbus, prompting many residents to flee across the border into Chad to avoid renewed fighting and possible retaliatory attacks should the RSF retake the town, they said.
To the north, the violence has continued to spread along North Darfur’s border with Chad. The RSF has maintained its campaign in the Ambro locality, targeting villages and towns along the supply routes it is looking to secure from Chad and Libya.
Fighters attacked and looted two villages this week, killing and kidnapping residents and forcing more families from their homes. A member of Ambro’s emergency room coordination committee estimated that the violence in the locality has displaced more than 40,000 people since June.
Across the northern border, Sudan’s Zakat Chamber has launched an initiative with the Sudanese embassy in Cairo to identify Sudanese migrants imprisoned over unpaid debts, settle what they owe and facilitate their return to Sudan. The chamber, which has increasingly supported the military-led government’s “voluntary return” campaign, says the first phase will cover 300 prisoners held in Cairo.
A Zakat Chamber official told Mada Masr that recent assessments indicate that as many as 1,000 Sudanese could be imprisoned across Egypt over debt-related cases, pointing to a growing crisis that sources involved in the return campaign describe as one of the biggest obstacles preventing displaced Sudanese from returning home.
Rising rents and living costs, coupled with limited opportunities for work, have pushed many migrant families in Egypt toward installment purchases to cover basic expenses.
In neighborhoods with large Sudanese communities, a credit market has emerged around that demand, with Sudanese- and Egyptian-run companies offering installment plans and cash advances that can leave borrowers trapped in mounting debt, a Sudanese resident of Cairo’s Faisal neighborhood told Mada Masr.
Many postpone returning to Sudan because they cannot leave without first settling what they owe. Those who fall behind repayments face steep penalties or end up in prison.
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Military retakes Blue Nile’s Kurmuk
The military announces the recapture of Kurmuk in Blue Nile State, July 8. Photo: @AbedaMoham6183 via X.
The military recaptured the strategic border city of Kurmuk in Blue Nile State on Wednesday, ending more than three months of RSF control.
The operation began at dawn with military units advancing simultaneously from the southern and western axes after intensive artillery shelling and airstrikes targeted the RSF’s remaining defensive positions inside Kurmuk and on its outskirts, a field source in the military unit that led the assault — known as the Nabaa al-Yaqeen force — told Mada Masr.
Under the cover of shelling and strikes, ground forces breached the first defensive lines and pushed into the city, launching street-by-street clearing operations.
Facing pressure on multiple fronts, RSF fighters and their SPLM-N allies withdrew toward surrounding rural areas, abandoning vehicles, weapons and ammunition that were subsequently seized by the military, the source said.
According to a military source, some RSF fighters retreated south toward Yabus while others crossed into Ethiopian territory.
After the military declared full control of Kurmuk, operations continued with the deployment of forces around the city and extensive clearing operations aimed at preventing any counterattacks or attempts by withdrawing forces to regroup, the field source said.
Dozens of RSF fighters and what the military source said are collaborators were captured.
A former military officer told Mada Masr that recapturing Kurmuk dealt a major blow to the RSF, describing the city as the most important security flashpoint in Blue Nile State. Kurmuk had served as a strategic base for launching attacks into southern parts of the state and for receiving supplies routed through Ethiopia .
The RSF seized Kurmuk on March 24 after thousands of fighters crossed from Ethiopia into southeastern Blue Nile State and advanced on the city. The offensive followed weeks of military operations and drone strikes across the locality, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee and triggering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis across displacement shelters in Blue Nile.
According to the field source, the military’s efforts to retake the strategic city began as soon as it fell.
The immediate objective, the source said, was not to launch a counteroffensive but to halt the attackers’ advance before they could push north toward Roseires and the state capital Damazin.
What followed, according to the source, was a three-stage operation that first focused on containing the RSF, then isolating its forces inside Kurmuk, before culminating in Wednesday’s assault.
The first phase centered on what the source described as a strategy of “holding and securing.” Engineering and combat units strengthened defensive positions across the southern and eastern fronts of Damazin while securing all routes leading to the Roseires Dam, aiming to prevent any direct threat to the facility, which supplies electricity to large parts of Sudan and provides irrigation for major agricultural schemes.
At the same time, the air force launched intensive strikes against RSF supply lines, logistics movements and military vehicles along the strategic Kurmuk-Geisan road, as well as border areas adjacent to Ethiopia, in an effort to prevent the group from bringing in reinforcements.
The military then shifted to what the source called the “operational isolation” phase, seeking to cut off RSF fighters inside Kurmuk. Ground troops gradually advanced through the areas surrounding the city, first securing the strategic Khor al-Baraka area before pushing east toward Sarkam and Magagga , which the source described as “Kurmuk’s outer defensive belt and frontline positions.”
Throughout this phase, artillery units and the air force carried out sustained strikes on RSF command-and-control positions, ammunition depots and heavy equipment to reduce the group’s ability to maneuver and force its fighters to abandon their advance positions.
The final phase was Wednesday’s ground assault.
The RSF and the SPLM-N continue to control Yabus in the far south of Blue Nile State, as well as the Bao locality’s Olo area to the southwest.
The military source said further ground operations are likely to slow with the onset of the rainy season, when movement becomes considerably more difficult due to the limited paved road network.
The greater challenge
With the military operation now over, Blue Nile authorities say the challenge now lies in responding to the humanitarian devastation.
“The military victory in Kurmuk places us now before the greater and more complex challenge: addressing the costly humanitarian toll left by the conflict,” a senior regional government official told Mada Masr.
Nearly 100,000 people have been displaced since late March, the official said, most of them women, children and elderly people who fled villages and settlements across the Kurmuk locality. They are now scattered across camps and temporary shelters throughout Blue Nile State. As military operations intensified ahead of the final offensive on Kurmuk, authorities evacuated around 3,000 people from the Gabarda camp near Sali to Damazin, fearing the camp could be caught in the fighting, the official added.
The onset of the rainy season has complicated an already dire humanitarian situation by making relief deliveries to displacement camps more difficult and limiting access to healthcare, the official said.
Around Damazin alone, tens of thousands of displaced families are living in the Karama camps and the sprawling settlements that have emerged around them. With the camps long beyond capacity, many set up makeshift tents on low ground nearby. Volunteers, displaced people and government officials previously told Mada Masr that the rainy season threatens to inundate those settlements if families are not relocated.
But even with Kurmuk now under the military’s control, the city remains unfit for the displaced to return.
Field assessment teams have documented extensive damage to electricity generation facilities, water networks and pumping stations, as well as hospitals and health centers that were damaged during months of fighting, the official said.
The regional government has therefore developed a phased return strategy, they said. Military engineering units will first clear landmines, unexploded ordnance and other explosive remnants of war. Authorities will then begin restoring water, electricity and healthcare services in coordination with the Humanitarian Aid Commission and relevant ministries, with the immediate goal of restoring safe drinking water and reopening at least one primary healthcare facility.
Only after those steps are completed will returns begin. Residents will travel in convoys overseen by local authorities and tribal leaders, starting with neighborhoods inside Kurmuk deemed secure before extending to nearby villages once they have been cleared.
While welcoming support from the Humanitarian Aid Commission and international organizations, the official acknowledged that humanitarian assistance remains well short of what is needed.
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RSF drone campaign drives fuel, water crisis in Obeid
One of the RSF drone strikes that hit the city of Obeid in North Kordofan, July 5. Photo: @combat_expert1 via X.
Weeks-long drone strikes have plunged North Kordofan’s capital Obeid into a worsening fuel crisis after several stations were forced out of service. The attacks destroyed some facilities and targeted fuel tankers in and around the city, disrupting supplies and driving up fuel prices.
The fuel shortage has compounded the impact of a citywide blackout triggered by a drone strike on the city’s main electricity substation in late June. With pumping stations left without power, residents also face an acute drinking water shortage.
Abdallah Ali, an Obeid resident, told Mada Masr that families recently struggled to secure drinking water, with the price of a barrel rising to 20,000 Sudanese pounds from around 5,000 before the crisis. He said the situation has eased somewhat after government agencies and humanitarian organizations intervened to improve supplies.
Transportation, however, remains the city’s biggest challenge. Ali said fuel shortages have forced many residents, including students and elderly people, to walk long distances to reach schools, workplaces and other destinations.
Gaafar Mohamed, who drives one of Obeid’s public bus routes , said he was forced to buy diesel on the black market for more than 100,000 Sudanese pounds per gallon during the early days of the crisis, compared to around 60,000 previously. Prices have continued to climb as fuel remains scarce at stations.
Despite the surge in operating costs, Mohamed said bus drivers have refrained from raising fares out of consideration for residents already struggling with successive crises.
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West Bara locality grapples with cholera outbreak
A cholera outbreak in the town of Mazroub, west of Bara in North Kordofan, has prompted warnings from the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate as infections and deaths continue to rise.
Since the rainy season began in late June, the Mazroub hospital has admitted 418 cholera patients, Adeeba al-Sayed, an internal medicine and epidemiology specialist and member of the syndicate’s preparatory committee, told Mada Masr. Sixty-one patients are currently receiving treatment at the isolation center.
The hospital recorded 29 new infections in a single day, she said, while 14 people have died from cholera-related complications in recent days.
According to Sayed, the caseload reflects an outbreak that is accelerating beyond the capacity of an already strained healthcare system. She attributed the spread to deteriorating sanitation services, contaminated water sources, damaged sewage infrastructure and an acute shortage of safe drinking water.
The federal Health Ministry also reported an increase in cholera cases in the West Bara locality and neighboring West Kordofan State on Tuesday.
In its latest national health situation report, the ministry said 55 cholera patients were receiving treatment at the isolation center in West Bara. It added that health authorities in West Kordofan are coordinating response efforts while humanitarian aid agencies have delivered medical supplies to support disease-control operations.
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RSF amasses forces near West Darfur’s Kulbus, residents flee
The RSF is reinforcing its positions around Kulbus in apparent preparation for a possible attempt to retake the strategic West Darfur border town, nearly a week after it fell to the military.
A former West Darfur official told Mada Masr that large RSF reinforcements, including allied tribal militias, have arrived from Nyala, Fasher and several fronts in Kordofan. The group has also mobilized civilian fighters along tribal lines and deployed them north of Jebel Moon and in towns southeast of Kulbus.
The military buildup has fueled fears among residents, prompting many to cross into neighboring Chad to escape the prospect of renewed fighting and retaliatory attacks should the RSF regain control of the town, the official said.
Following the military’s capture of Kulbus last week, a former military officer told Mada Masr that the military enjoys broad local support in the area, particularly among the Gimr tribal communities around the town.
The capture deprived the RSF of one of its most important logistics hubs on the Chadian border, long used to move fighters, weapons and fuel across Darfur and Kordofan. Together with gains along the corridor between Tina in North Darfur and Geneina, West Darfur’s capital, it also placed the military within striking distance of Geneina.
A commander in the joint force of the military-allied armed movements told Mada Masr that military-allied fighters continued offensive operations this week, including a surprise raid on RSF positions in Abu Sorug in the Sirba locality, about 30 km northwest of Geneina, on Wednesday.
The joint force has meanwhile strengthened its positions in Kulbus, as well as in North Darfur’s Tina, Karnoi and Ambro, while extending deployments toward Sirba and Bir Saliba in West Darfur, the commander said.
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RSF attacks villages in North Darfur’s Ambro locality
The RSF attacked the villages of Gourbara and Aro in North Darfur’s Ambro locality on July 2 and 3, according to the Popular Resistance Forces .
During the attacks, RSF fighters killed 11 people and kidnapped five. The attacking forces also burned Gourbara’s market and looted homes and property, the group said.
Neither village hosted military forces, the group stressed, describing the attacks as part of the same pattern of retaliatory violence seen in the Orshi area in mid-June.
The group warned that the violence has triggered a humanitarian crisis, forcing thousands of families to flee under extremely harsh conditions.
A member of the Ambro emergency room coordination committee told Mada Masr that fighting has steadily spread since June across eastern and northern Kutum, including the Ambro locality and its surrounding administrative units.
More than 50 towns and villages have now been affected, forcing over 40,000 people to flee, the committee member said. Those displaced face severe shortages of food, drinking water and shelter.
Ambro lies in the Zaghawa tribal lands along the Chadian border, one of the last military-held areas in Darfur and a frequent target of RSF operations since Fasher fell to the paramilitary group late last year.
A tribal leader previously told Mada Masr that the campaign against Ambro is aimed at driving communities out from the area to secure RSF supply routes running through Chad and Libya.
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Military, RSF exchange drone strikes in North Kordofan
At least 25 civilians were killed this week as the military and the RSF exchanged drone strikes across North Kordofan.
The Sudan Doctors Network said 10 civilians, including five women from the same family, were killed after an RSF guided drone struck their vehicle on the Saderat road as they were travelling to attend a wedding on Wednesday. The vehicle caught fire, killing everyone on board.
The network said the attack appeared deliberate, arguing that the use of a guided drone reflected a systematic pattern of targeting civilians in the area.
Another 15 civilians were killed in two separate drone attacks in North Kordofan on Monday and Tuesday, the Emergency Lawyers group said .
According to the group, one strike hit a civilian water truck near a water source in Hamra al-Sheikh, killing two people, while another targeted a civilian transport vehicle in the village of Shaatout east of Gabra al-Sheikh, killing 13 civilians.
As the RSF stepped up its drone campaign, the military also expanded its own aerial operations. A field source affiliated with the General Intelligence Service told Mada Masr that military drones struck RSF gatherings in Bara and the Um Girfa area of North Kordofan on Sunday and Monday, as well as an RSF supply convoy arriving from Libya in Wadi Hawar, North Darfur.
On Tuesday, the military said it shot down a strategic drone north of Andraba along the Saderat road linking North Kordofan’s Bara and Omdurman in the capital Khartoum.
A military source told Mada Masr that air surveillance systems detected the drone before it was intercepted by an air-to-air missile fired from a Turkish Bayraktar drone. According to the source, it was the third FH-95 drone the military had downed in less than two weeks.
Andraba, near Rahad al-Nuba, hosts one of the military’s main advance positions west of Omdurman.
The source added that another RSF drone struck the same area on Saturday but caused no casualties.
The interceptions come as the military has recently acquired Turkish air defense systems, along with strategic drones capable of flying at altitudes exceeding 10,000 feet and striking targets up to 1,000 km away, according to the military source.
In Khartoum, three eyewitnesses also told Mada Masr that military fighter jets flew repeatedly over the capital on Saturday and Sunday before heading west — the first such sorties in more than a year.
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Installment debt crisis traps Sudanese in Egypt, embassy moves to free debtors in prison
Sudan’s Zakat Chamber and the Sudanese embassy in Cairo sign an agreement to settle the debts of 300 Sudanese imprisoned in Egypt, July 5. Courtesy: Sudan News Agency.
Under a deal with the Sudanese embassy in Cairo, Sudan’s Zakat Chamber has agreed to settle the debts of 300 imprisoned Sudanese in Egypt, paving the way for their release and repatriation back to Sudan .
A Sudanese embassy official in Cairo estimated that between 400 and 500 Sudanese are currently imprisoned in Egypt over debt-related cases. A Zakat Chamber official put the figure much higher, saying recent assessments suggest there could be as many as 1,000 Sudanese debtors in prisons across the country, with the first 300 beneficiaries of the chamber’s initiative all held in Cairo alone.
As rents, food prices, education and healthcare costs in Egypt have steadily risen, many Sudanese families displaced by the war exhausted their savings and began relying on loans or installment plans to get by, an official at Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission and an Egypt-based source involved in Khartoum’s return campaign told Mada Masr.
With Sudanese migrants facing severe restrictions on access to steady employment, many have struggled to keep up with repayments. Some became unable to leave Egypt without first clearing what they owed, while others ended up in prison over unpaid debts, the sources said.
The Zakat Chamber, which operates under the Sudanese Social Welfare Ministry, has long provided assistance to indebted people. Since the launch of Khartoum’s “voluntary return” campaign to bring back displaced Sudanese to areas under military control, the chamber has also offered financial support for certain humanitarian cases, working with return committees, Sudanese embassies and authorities in host countries.
A source in Cairo’s Amal return committee told Mada Masr that the chamber’s recent initiative is intended to address a growing debt crisis that they said has become one of the biggest obstacles preventing thousands of Sudanese migrants in Egypt from returning.
That was the experience of Mohamed*, who has lived in Cairo’s Faisal neighborhood with his family since fleeing Khartoum in mid-2023. The family of six relies almost entirely on monthly remittances from Mohamed’s older brother, who works in a Gulf state.
The arrangement sustained the family during their first months in Egypt. But as rents rose and inflation drove up the cost of living, the remittances no longer covered even basic needs.
To bridge the gap, Mohamed said, the family began purchasing household goods through installment plans that have become increasingly widespread in Cairo’s neighborhoods with large Sudanese communities. Shops, often working with finance companies, allow them to take home beds, mattresses, refrigerators, washing machines, cooking stoves and even food items in exchange for monthly payments. Some of those companies are operated by Sudanese nationals, he said.
In other cases, companies offer short-term cash advances that borrowers repay when the next remittance arrives, Mohamed added.
Although the debts are owed in Egyptian pounds, many Sudanese families receive remittances through informal cross-border transfer networks since most either lack or are waiting to renew residence permits, which are required to open Egyptian bank accounts. Those transfers are exchanged for Sudanese pounds before being converted back into Egyptian pounds on the black market, exposing families to steep exchange rate losses.
As the Sudanese pound depreciated, those successive conversions became increasingly costly. Mohamed estimated that exchange rate losses increased his family’s repayment burden by around 60 percent.
The money Mohamed’s family receives each month barely covered rent and loan repayments. When they considered returning to Sudan, they realized they could not leave without first settling their debts. They postponed the move several times, hoping his brother would be able to send enough money to clear what they owed. But he never could, which left the family effectively trapped in Egypt.
For families who fall even further into debt, the consequences can be far more severe, Mohamed said. Installment plans often carry monthly penalties of up to 5 percent on overdue payments. If the interest rate compounds to the point that it doubles the original loan value, people can face imprisonment. Some families, he added, have even sold the very household appliances they bought on credit in order to repay loans carrying the highest interest rates.
The Sudanese embassy has spent the past several months coordinating with Egyptian authorities and the Zakat Chamber to identify imprisoned debtors for the initiative, the official in the embassy said, describing them as among the most vulnerable members of the displaced Sudanese community in Egypt.
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Prime minister’s executive directives reversed
The suspension in early July of Prime Minister Kamel Idris’s appointment of a new Foreign Ministry undersecretary has become the latest illustration of the fragmentation under which Sudan’s government continues to operate.
In recent weeks, several economic policy decisions have also been delayed or reversed, undercutting the prime minister’s attempts to exercise executive power.
The incident, which spilled into public view after the Information Ministry denied on July 5 that the appointment had officially been made, is particularly sensitive because it concerns one of the government’s key sovereign institutions and risks projecting uncertainty over decision-making to Sudan’s international partners.
According to a diplomatic source, Idris issued a decree on June 30 appointing Ambassador Idris Mohamed Ali as the Foreign Ministry’s undersecretary, replacing Ambassador Muawiya Khaled, who was expected to take up a diplomatic post in Europe.
The source said the appointment was made in coordination with the foreign minister, and implementation procedures had already begun after the decision was communicated to the Finance Ministry and other state institutions.
Days later, however, the ministry was informed through the prime minister’s office that the decree had been frozen , according to the source.
On July 5, the Information Ministry issued a statement denying that any official government decision on the appointment had been announced.
The reversal sowed confusion inside the Foreign Ministry, where implementation of the appointment had already begun, according to the diplomatic source. Officials questioned why a decree that had been communicated to the ministry and other government bodies was later put on hold, and whether decisions issued by the prime minister remain subject to subsequent political review before taking effect.
A senior government official familiar with the matter said the Foreign Ministry incident was not an isolated case. Several decisions issued by Idris in recent weeks, the official said, had later been delayed or reversed as they moved through the state’s overlapping decision-making structures.
The Foreign Ministry case carried particular weight because of the ministry’s central role during the war, overseeing Sudan’s foreign relations, engagement with international partners and humanitarian diplomacy, according to the official. Uncertainty over appointments within the ministry, the official added, risks projecting institutional disarray beyond Sudan’s borders.
According to a former Cabinet secretariat official, decisions issued by the prime minister continue to be shaped by broader political, security and sovereign consensus before they can be fully implemented.
Since taking office, Idris has sought to present himself as the leader of Sudan’s state-rebuilding phase, pledging to restructure government institutions and reform the civil service, the former official said. But efforts to implement that vision have continued to face mounting obstacles imposed by the complexities of the country’s existing power structure, they added.
This dynamic has also played out in economic policymaking. In May, the government banned the import of dozens of goods classified as luxury or non-essential in an effort to ease pressure on foreign currency reserves and slow the depreciation of the Sudanese pound. The Industry and Trade Ministry announced the measure and began enforcing it across a broad range of imported goods.
However, the policy soon faced opposition from economic and trade circles and underwent a series of reviews that ultimately led to its temporary suspension only weeks after implementation began, according to a source close to Idris.
The reversal underscores the executive’s limited ability to sustain economic policy once competing political and institutional interests came into play, the source said.
The same dynamic emerged in Idris’s proposal for the government to directly import petroleum products in an effort to regulate the market and stabilize fuel prices.
While the Energy and Petroleum Ministry supported returning fuel imports to state control rather than leaving them to private companies, the Finance Ministry argued there was no need for government intervention under Sudan’s liberal market policy, warning that such a move would further complicate the country’s economic situation, according to the source close to Idris.
The proposal was rejected by the ministry and the central bank, preventing it from moving forward despite the prime minister’s directives.
A government official at Idris’s office argued that such disputes are an inherent feature of Sudan’s wartime political system. The government operates within a hybrid governing system shaped by exceptional circumstances and sustained by political and military balances.
The official said Idris has faced those constraints since forming his government.
The months-long Cabinet formation process was marked by intervention from the Transitional Sovereignty Council and armed movements signatory to the 2020 Juba peace agreement, limiting Idris’s mandate to build the technocratic government he had promised.
According to a former ministerial official, the Foreign Ministry incident shows that the same constraints continue to govern appointments to senior state positions.
A former diplomat said that continued uncertainty over the limits of executive authority and decision-making mechanisms is slowing efforts to rebuild state institutions and undermining the government’s ability to implement the administrative and economic reforms it has pledged.
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Architect of Hemedti’s Entebbe visit holds talks in Khartoum
The Ugandan intelligence chief who orchestrated RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo’s visit to Entebbe earlier this year traveled to Khartoum on Friday for high-level talks, as concerns over neighboring South Sudan push Kampala and Khartoum toward closer coordination.
Joseph Ocwet, head of Uganda’s External Security Organization, met TSC Chair Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, his deputy Malik Agar, Prime Minister Kamel Idris and General Intelligence Service Director Ahmed Ibrahim Mufaddal over two days.
According to sources informed of the meetings, the talks covered Sudan’s war and Uganda’s regional role as an influential African Union member, but devoted significant attention to South Sudan, particularly its upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.
South Sudan remains in a fragile transition nearly eight years after the 2018 peace agreement between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar ended a brutal five-year civil war. The country has yet to hold its first post-independence election, repeatedly postponing the vote as the political rivals failed to complete security reforms or draft a constitution. The delays have been compounded over the past year by renewed violence and Machar’s detention and trial on treason charges, stoking fears among regional and international actors that the country could spiral back into civil war.
Khartoum and Kampala, both influential players in Juba, have increasingly converged around the importance of preserving stability there ahead of the vote, the sources said.
Ocwet began his meetings on Friday with Agar, then met Idris before concluding his visit on Saturday with talks with Burhan at his office in Khartoum.
A source at the TSC told Mada Masr that Ocwet delivered a message from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on bilateral relations, efforts to end the war in Sudan, and security developments across East Africa.
The discussions extended to South Sudan, where both sides reviewed the impact of Sudan’s war on the country’s political and security situation. According to the TSC source, the Ugandan delegation expressed concern that the prolonged war could upset the political and security balance in Juba and undermine implementation of South Sudan’s peace agreement.
It also emphasized the importance of insulating South Sudan from the shifting regional alignments emerging around Sudan, arguing that closer coordination among Kampala, Khartoum and Juba would be key to the success of the election, scheduled for December.
A senior South Sudanese diplomatic source said Uganda considers the election significant not only for South Sudan but for the wider Nile Basin and the Horn of Africa. Kampala remains in contact with all South Sudanese political actors and supports holding the vote on schedule, while recognizing that progress on security arrangements, the unification of armed forces and relations between the government and the opposition will be necessary before credible election can take place.
Museveni, the diplomat added, believes another postponement or renewed political vacuum could trigger a new cycle of instability, prompting Kampala to intensify diplomatic engagement through bilateral contacts and coordination with the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Despite its own war, Sudan remains a key external actor in South Sudan’s politics because of the two countries’ intertwined security and economic interests and shared border, the stability of which depends on peace in South Sudan, the diplomat added.
Khartoum is closely monitoring preparations for the election, the diplomat said, viewing a stable, elected government in Juba as critical to safeguarding South Sudan’s oil exports through Sudanese territory, strengthening border security and curbing the movement of armed groups across the border.
Those overlapping interests have translated into close coordination between Sudan and Uganda over South Sudan’s political transition, according to the diplomat.
The meetings in Khartoum also touched on bilateral relations following Uganda’s hosting, at various stages of the war, of senior RSF figures, including Hemedti. Sudanese officials stressed that regional states should adhere to the principle of neutrality and avoid providing political or logistical platforms that could undermine efforts to end the war, the source informed of the talks said.
Hemedti traveled to Uganda in February at the head of a senior delegation from the RSF-led Tasis alliance, which leads the parallel government in western Sudan. Sources told Mada Masr at the time that the visit was primarily an attempt to confer legitimacy on Tasis and its government. Khartoum condemned Kampala’s reception of Hemedti as unprecedented and expressed concern over whether the visit signals a shift in its policy toward Sudan.
Following his meeting with Ocwet on Friday, Agar said the Ugandan envoy reiterated Kampala’s rejection of any parallel government in Sudan and affirmed its recognition of Khartoum as the country’s sole legitimate authority.
In a statement issued after Saturday’s meeting, the TSC said Burhan reaffirmed Sudan’s commitment to strengthening relations with Uganda in ways that serve the two countries’ mutual interests, while emphasizing the importance of regional efforts to support peace and stability in Sudan.
It added that Museveni intends to prioritize the Sudan file in the coming period as part of broader African and regional efforts to contain the consequences of the war.
*pseudonym.
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The post Sudan Nashra: Military retakes Blue Nile’s Kurmuk | RSF amasses forces near West Darfur’s Kulbus, residents flee | Debt crisis traps Sudanese in Egypt, embassy moves to free debtors in prison | Architect of Hemedti’s Entebbe visit holds talks in Khartoum first appeared on Mada Masr .