Sudan Nashra: Burhan invokes Jeddah Agreement to set new negotiation terms | Over 150 abducted in South Kordofan in RSF-SPLM (Hilu) forced recruitment campaign | RSF launches major attack on Babanusa | Joint opposition forces in South Sudan clash with govt troops

With regional allies now propping up his forces on the battlefield, Sudanese Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief and Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized the chance this week to undermine the Quad’s latest ceasefire proposal and reassert the Jeddah Agreement as the military’s departure point for negotiations — reviving demands for the Rapid Support Forces to withdraw from all the areas it occupied after the Saudi-sponsored process in May 2023.

Burhan’s speech came just days after United States President Donald Trump said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman had asked him to intervene to end the war. The request followed a lengthy phone call in which Burhan conveyed Khartoum’s objections to the draft proposal, a TSC source said. 

Burhan’s pivot back to Jeddah — a framework that would require substantial revisions — is aimed at appeasing a military establishment determined to see the RSF eliminated, while giving him room to avoid any binding deal that might restrict his options, informed Egyptian and Sudanese sources told Mada Masr. Within days, senior military and government officials echoed his line, reaffirming their commitment to the Jeddah framework and signaling the state’s readiness for a major operation in Kordofan.

A day after Burhan’s speech, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo unilaterally announced a three-month humanitarian ceasefire. Hours later, his forces launched an extensive assault on Babanusa, the last major military-held city in West Kordofan.

In North Kordofan, ambushes and drone strikes on RSF positions have continued across several parts of the state, according to a field source.

The RSF is also facing diplomatic fallout over the widely documented violence it wielded when taking the capital of Fasher, violence that included mass killing, sexual violence, kidnapping and extortion.

 Earlier this week, the European Union has imposed sanctions on the paramilitary's deputy commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo over ongoing atrocities. This comes as the RSF and its ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, carry out forced recruitment campaigns in South Kordofan amid mass lootings. One civilian was killed as residents resisted, and around 150 people, including children, were abducted for forced conscription.

Across Sudan’s southern borders, and as the trial of South Sudan’s former First Vice President and opposition leader Riek Machar enters its 24th session, joint opposition forces — comprising Machar’s movement and forces from the National Salvation Front — continue to clash with government troops in the Equatoria region. 

The alliance was formed in September, after Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition — one of the two signatories to South Sudan’s 2018 peace agreement — declared that the transitional government formed under the deal had “collapsed,” following Machar’s arrest and prosecution.

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Burhan invokes Jeddah Agreement to set new negotiation terms

Days after US President Donald Trump said Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman had asked him to intervene to end the war in Sudan, Sudanese Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief and TSC Chair Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appeared before his senior commanders in Khartoum to throw his weight behind the crown prince’s initiative and, at the same time, undermine the Quad initiative.

Burhan told commanders that the Quad — led by US Senior Advisor for African and Arab Affairs Massad Boulos — had submitted a new proposal the previous week, which he described as “the worst” of three drafts. 

What followed was a series of statements from the military’s top brass undermining the Quad initiative. The clearest shift came during Burhan’s Sunday briefing at the General Command in central Khartoum, where he said the latest paper “does not recognize the armed forces, nor reflect the government’s response” to the previous proposals, adding that it “calls for dissolving security agencies, and keeps the [RSF] where they are.” Burhan brought up the two-year-old Jeddah Agreement  as the military’s departure point for negotiations.

Burhan said Boulos himself “may be an obstacle to achieving peace,” accusing him of speaking on behalf of the RSF and the UAE. He rejected the proposal, insisting that the RSF would not be part of any future arrangements and that the military was “determined to retake all areas seized by the [RSF].” Burhan doubled down on the Jeddah Agreement-anchored government roadmap, with prerequisites including the RSF’s disarmament and withdrawal from all the areas it occupied after the Jeddah talks, as well as the demand that RSF fighters report to designated military camps.

Speaking at a joint press conference on Sudan with United Arab Emirates presidential advisor Anwar Gargash on Tuesday, Boulos said the military’s preconditions were impossible to achieve given the current realities on the ground, calling them obstructive to the process.

Sources have previously told Mada Masr that there is an international consensus on the need for negotiated power and resource sharing in Sudan due to the widely held perception that the country is now effectively divided. This approach was at the core of the US and Egypt-led mediation put forward in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Fasher to the RSF in late October. 

While Egypt and Turkey, alongside a host of other actors, rushed in to prop up the Sudanese military and stymie the UAE’s supply lines after the fall of Fasher, neither is looking for military adventurism to retake Darfur or a full on confrontation with other Quad members. 

“There is a de facto division of Sudan and we have to work with that,” one of the sources involved in Egypt’s Sudan policy previously told Mada Masr. “Egypt is not trying to pursue a confrontation with the Saudis or Emiratis or anyone. ” 

But the stabilizing force provided by the Egyptian and Turkish intervention has given Burhan some leeway to appease hardliners within his domestic coalition. So he returned to the negotiating table with a different set of conditions. 

An Egyptian source familiar with Cairo’s policy on Sudan said that Burhan’s invocation of the Jeddah Agreement is “about a political position” directed by a military establishment that wants to see the RSF eliminated completely.

The never-implemented Jeddah Agreement was signed in May 2023 and required the parties to ensure humanitarian aid is delivered across the country. The military has repeatedly argued that the RSF failed to abide by key features of the text regarding the occupation of civilian facilities and property. The agreement includes two portions related to withdrawal: the RSF and military pledged to “vacate urban centers, including civilian houses” and committed to “vacate and refrain from occupying, as well as to respect and protect all public and private facilities, such as hospitals and water and electricity installations, and refrain from using them for military purposes.”

An Egyptian official familiar with the course of the talks said Burhan is pushing for “the RSF to withdraw from the centers of the big cities so he could at least go back to those he represents to tell them ‘this is the beginning of the RSF’s withdrawal,’” they told Mada Masr. The official said the RSF is unlikely to agree to such a condition, and even if they did, it would not fundamentally change the fact that there is a de facto division in Sudan.

Cairo, the official added, wants Burhan to drop this demand to help him move forward, noting that, now that Saudi Arabia and Sudan are holding bilateral talks outside of the Quad framework, bin Salman may be the only one who can placate Burhan’s demands.

Egypt, the source familiar with Cairo’s policy on Sudan added, has acknowledged that the Saudis want to take the lead on the negotiations and accepts Riyadh’s leadership because “this is the only way it will work.”  

The draft Boulos submitted last week arrived at a convenient moment for Burhan, allowing the military to fall back on its long-standing demands under the Jeddah framework.

According to the Egyptian official, Burhan has concerns about a humanitarian ceasefire. The military believes that a pause will allow the RSF to “rearm, regroup and rework their plans,” the official said. “The idea in the Sudanese military is that the RSF should have one of two choices: withdraw, and then there could be talks about a political agreement that would not include Hemedti or any of his top commanders; or accept that the war will continue until the RSF is defeated.”

The latest proposal kept the RSF as a separate entity and placed military reforms under international supervision, according to a TSC source who said the draft left Burhan “deeply upset,” describing it as a fundamental revision of the previous one. The document, the source said, prompted Burhan to hold an unannounced lengthy call with bin Salman ahead of the crown prince’s visit to Washington to clarify Khartoum’s position and register the military’s objections to Boulos’s proposal.

Inside the government, the insistence on returning to the Jeddah Agreement has dominated deliberations. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohie Eddin Salem held a press briefing at the General Intelligence Service headquarters in Port Sudan, where he reiterated that the government is open to any initiative that supports peace while respecting Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Before entering any new political process, the [RSF] must fully commit to implementing the provisions of the Jeddah Agreement, withdrawing from the cities and lifting the sieges,” he said.

Darfur Governor and Sudan Liberation Movement leader Minni Arko Minnawi — whose forces fight alongside the military in the joint force of armed movements — echoed the same demands in a Facebook post, calling for unified leadership that can steer the country “in the right direction” through what he called “a national approach with specific conditions.”

The military-allied armed movements had already signaled their rejection of the humanitarian ceasefire proposal put forward by Boulos in Cairo in early November, affirming their commitment to a military resolution.

However, even if the Jeddah Agreement serves as a framework for talks, it is unlikely to remain unalterated. The source familiar with Egypt’s policy on Sudan told Mada Masr that the UAE and the RSF know they will have to agree to negotiations under the Jeddah parameters, but they will also have something to win. “They will not have to withdraw and the RSF’s demands will have to be included in negotiations,” they said. 

A day after Burhan’s address to his commanders, Hemedti unilaterally announced a three-month humanitarian ceasefire — a declaration that was quickly followed by a major attack on West Kordofan’s Babanusa.

Hemedti said in the recorded statement that the truce comes in response to ongoing international efforts — namely Trump’s and the Quad’s. He added that the RSF accepts the creation of an international monitoring mechanism and supports the participation of all parties “except the Islamist movement and the Muslim Brotherhood,” and urged the Quad to pressure the other side to abide by the truce.

While a Sudanese diplomat said the Saudi initiative falls “within the framework of [Riyadh's] previous efforts on the Jeddah platform” — noting that the government believes the sheer number of platforms has deepened the crisis — another informed source said Burhan is himself deliberately creating parallel pathways that would grant him greater room to maneuver and dodge any binding deal that might restrict his military or political options in the coming phase.

According to two sources in the TSC, a Sudanese delegation’s planned visit to Europe was postponed to allow for further internal consultation on the issues slated for discussion with EU officials. The tour, which was expected to include France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, was meant to address humanitarian aid and coordination on irregular migration. One of the TSC sources said the visit was canceled due to government concerns that multiple tracks might be perceived as parallel negotiations. The other said the trip was simply not a priority for the TSC.

Amid this diplomatic posturing, there continues to be pessimism about a full end to the war. 

“What we want now is for the war to be paused. We know the war will not permanently end now,” the Egyptian official said. “We want a pause because it is a humanitarian disaster and the spillover will come to us.”

The United Nations said the war has created the “world’s largest humanitarian crisis,” marked by severe shortages of food, safe water and sanitation amid continuous outbreaks of cholera, dengue and malaria.  Over 30 million people across Sudan are in need of assistance, according to UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres. Earlier this month, the global authority on food insecurity said that around 54 percent of Sudan's population is facing acute food insecurity, as it declared famine in Fasher and Kadugli, warning that 20 additional areas across Kordofan and Darfur are at risk.

The weeks-long surge in violence across Darfur and Kordofan, sharply intensifying after the brutal fall of Fasher to the RSF, has led to the displacement of 150,000 people, according to the UN Refugee Agency, which warned that a “protection catastrophe” in both regions is accelerating “at an alarming pace.”

For now, the fighting continues. In what appears to be in preparation for a large-scale ground offensive in the Kordofan region, Sudanese Armed Forces Assistant Commander-in-Chief and head of its mobile command Yasser al-Atta boasted on Wednesday in North Kordofan’s Obeid that the military is ready to regain control over all of Sudan’s international borders and that it is now in an offensive posture.

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RSF attacks Babanusa, one civilian killed in forced recruitment campaign by RSF and SPLM-N (al-Hilu) forces in South Kordofan

Hours after Hemedti announced a three-month truce on Monday, his forces launched a major offensive on Babanusa — the last major city in West Kordofan still held by the military and defended by the 22nd Infantry Division.

A military source told Mada Masr that the assault was preceded by heavy artillery fire targeting the division’s headquarters and fortified positions across the city. The military repelled the attack, forcing the RSF to withdraw to its previous positions.

Prior to the attack, the RSF had deployed additional troops, armored vehicles and modern air defense systems, advancing into areas west of Babanusa, including Um Dagig, Khuweirat and Eweida, according to the source. Meanwhile, the military has reinforced its defensive lines both inside the city and around the division’s headquarters. 

The RSF has besieged Babanusa for over a year and has stepped up its attempts to seize it since the fall of Fasher, in a bid to consolidate control over the entirety of West Kordofan.

To the north, ambushes and drone strikes targeting RSF positions have continued across several parts of North Kordofan, a field source told Mada Masr. RSF fighters have been massing west of Nuhud, while the military continues operations along the Obeid-Nuhud road.

On Sunday, RSF fighters set out from Fula, the capital of West Kordofan, in more than 20 combat vehicles, attempting to attack military positions along the Abu Sunun axis northwest of North Kordofan’s capital of Obeid. They were intercepted by the military, backed by a General Intelligence Service unit, resulting in RSF casualties, the destruction of several vehicles and the capture of others, according to the source. Several RSF fighters were detained and large quantities of weapons and ammunition were seized in the operation. 

The source added that military drones struck RSF vehicles in Abu Qaoud and Nuhud on Sunday and Monday.

A former officer told Mada Masr that the military’s strategy in Kordofan relies on quick, targeted operations carried by special mobile units supported by intelligence gathered through aerial reconnaissance and surveillance. The high frequency of these operations, combined with the involvement of multiple combat units, has resulted in unexpected damage to RSF positions and supply routes.

In South Kordofan’s Abbassiya locality, in the administrative area of Tibsa, fighters from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu — supported by the RSF — killed one civilian and abducted around 150 people working at a traditional gold mine.

A local community leader told Mada Masr that the attackers were forcibly recruiting young men and children while looting civilian homes and property. Some residents resisted, which resulted in the death of one civilian and injuries to others. According to the source, over 100 workers at the Zallataya mine were abducted, and some families were forced to pay ransoms to avoid forced conscription amid widespread searches and property seizures.

The Sudan Doctors Network put the number of abductees at around 150, confirming there were children among them. The network described the attacks as possible war crimes and grave breaches of international humanitarian law.

It added that this was not the first such incident, recalling an earlier operation in which civilians were taken from the main market and subjected to forced recruitment and looting.

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EU sanctions RSF deputy commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo

The European Union Foreign Affairs Council imposed sanctions on RSF deputy commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo over “ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the RSF in Sudan, including following the seizure of the city of Fasher.”

“Deliberate targeting of civilians, ethnically motivated killings, systematic sexual and gender-based violence, starvation as a method of warfare and denying access for humanitarian aid are serious breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” the EU said in its Thursday statement.

The decision stated that “in October 2025, [Dagalo] ordered the killing and execution of civilians and led RSF actions against civilians in Fasher.” The sanctions include a travel ban and the freezing of his assets within EU member states.

The EU also reaffirmed its support for accountability mechanisms, “including the International Criminal Court and the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission and their investigations of crimes committed by the RSF, the [Sudanese Armed Forces] and their associates” in order to “break the cycle of impunity.”

Three sources close to Dagalo said the EU decision was “not based on clear or factual grounds,” but rather on “media narratives promoted by the military camp.” The sources claimed the EU was seeking to assign sole responsibility to the RSF as leverage in dealings with Burhan and figures in the military regarding the ceasefire.

The sources said Dagalo is prepared to open all RSF-controlled military sites and areas to investigators, adding that he expressed regret over the EU’s stance, viewing the sanctions as “no more than a political message” that does not affect him personally. According to the sources, Dagalo will continue to command the RSF and will not be deterred by the measures.

In the last year, Dagalo has increasingly dictated the paramilitary’s direction, according to a Mada Masr report published earlier this year. 

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Joint opposition forces in South Sudan clash with government troops in Eastern Equatoria

Joint opposition forces launched attacks last week in the South Sudanese town of Torit in the Eastern Equatoria State, according to a military source in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition — South Sudan’s opposition faction, led by former First Vice President Riek Machar, who is currently detained on charges of terrorism and treason. 

According to the source, government forces — the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces — in the area collapsed under pressure. The attack left Cyprian Oromo, deputy police chief inspector of Torit County, dead.

However, a SSPDF senior officer denied that Torit or its military sites had fallen, but confirmed that joint opposition forces — comprising SPLM-IO forces and the National Salvation Front — had struck several military positions along the road connecting Torit to Juba.

Torit, a strategic town around 136 km from Juba, hosts the largest military base outside the capital and is considered the eastern gateway for strategic goods entering Juba.

A source close to SPLM-IO acting chair Oyet Nathaniel Pierino said the SPLM-IO and NAS formed a joint alliance in September, after the former — one of the two signatories to South Sudan’s 2018 peace agreement — declared that the transitional government formed under the deal had “collapsed,” following Machar’s arrest and prosecution.

Since then, the two groups have carried out several joint operations, including the brief capture of a government military base in Kadiba in Mundri County, Western Equatoria State, on September 24, according to the source.

NAS, led by Thomas Cirilo Swaka, has been fighting the government since 2017, mainly operating in the Equatoria region.

A police source in Juba confirmed Oromo’s death in the Torit attack, which they said also targeted the military hospital. The assault demonstrated extensive coordination among the armed groups, according to the source.

A government source in Juba said this was the second major attack in Eastern Equatoria since the SPLM-IO and NAS formed their alliance, pointing to an earlier attack in the Kapoeta area in early October. The source said these operations confirm the SPLM-IO’s “implication in destabilizing South Sudan” and stressed that they would neither deter the government nor halt the ongoing trial of SPLM-IO leaders in Juba.

The trial of Machar and seven other senior SPLM-IO officials over February’s violence in Nasir continues in Juba. A member of the prosecution team told Mada Masr that the court, presided over by Judge James Alala Deng, has begun hearing the state’s witnesses. During its 23rd session on Saturday, the court reviewed evidence, and prosecutors plan to call 16 witnesses, eight of whom are under protection.

Machar and the seven co-defendants face charges of murder, treason, conspiracy, financing terrorism and crimes against humanity — stemming from the killing of around 250 soldiers in clashes in the Upper Nile State town of Nasir earlier this year.

Fighting in Nasir erupted in February after the White Army — a Machar-aligned militia drawn from the Nuer ethnic group, a historical rival to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’s Dinka-led leadership — resisted orders to withdraw from certain areas and hand over their weapons. The clashes were followed by an attack on a UN helicopter evacuating government soldiers, killing around 27 people, including the regional commander. The government has since held Machar and forces loyal to him responsible, moving to arrest SPLM-IO generals and ministers.