Sudan army breaks siege on key southern city Kadugli: army sources

KHARTOUM - Sudanese army forces broke a paramilitary siege on the South Kordofan state capital, Kadugli, on Tuesday, two army sources told AFP.

"Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege," one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.

The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.

The allies had also besieged the neighbouring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.

"After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them," another army source told AFP.

Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.

In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war's fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis.