| Sennar offensive | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sudanese civil war (2023-present) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Sudanese Armed Forces |  Rapid Support Forces | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Unknown | Abdel Rahman Albishi [4] | ||||||||
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has waged a major offensive against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Sennar State, resulting in widespread violence and displacement, [5] [6] as part of the ongoing Sudanese civil war.
The conflict in Sudan has been ongoing since April 2023, when tensions between the SAF and the RSF escalated into open warfare. The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been accused of gross rights violations across the country.
The Sennar Offensive began with the RSF attacking the village of Jebal Moya in Sennar province. The conflict soon spread to the provincial capital of Singa, where intense fighting erupted. [5]
RSF fighters in pickup trucks mounted with automatic rifles rampaged through Singa, looting houses and shops, and taking over the city's main hospital. The RSF claimed to have seized the military's main facility, the 17th Infantry Division Headquarters, in Singa.
The violence forced about 57,000 people to flee their homes. Those fleeing Singa arrived in Gedaref, Blue Nile, White Nile, and Kassala states. Aid groups in Gedaref, which is already hosting more than 600,000 people, started planning for the arrival of those fleeing Sennar.
The Sennar Offensive has had severe humanitarian consequences, with potential future disruption of large-scale agricultural programs in the nearby provinces of Blue Nile, White Nile, and Jazira.
Sennar is one of the 18 wilayat or states of Sudan. It has an area of 37,844 km2 (14,612 sq mi) and had a population of approximately 1,918,692 in 2018.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North, or SPLM–N, is a political party and militant organisation in the Republic of the Sudan, based in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. The group's armed forces are formally known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army–North or SPLA–N. As of 2017, its two factions, SPLM-N (Agar) and SPLM-N (al-Hilu) were engaged in fighting each other and against the government of Sudan, and as of 2023, the al-Hilu faction is fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), while the leader of the Agar faction was appointed into the military-run government.
The Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile was an armed conflict in the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N), a northern affiliate of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Sudan. After some years of relative calm following the 2005 agreement which ended the second Sudanese civil war between the Sudanese government and SPLM rebels, fighting broke out again in the lead-up to South Sudan independence on 9 July 2011, starting in South Kordofan on 5 June and spreading to the neighboring Blue Nile state in September. SPLM-N, splitting from newly independent SPLM, took up arms against the inclusion of the two southern states in Sudan with no popular consultation and against the lack of democratic elections. The conflict is intertwined with the War in Darfur, since in November 2011 SPLM-N established a loose alliance with Darfuri rebels, called Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).
Singa is a town located in the Sennar State of Sudan at an elevation of 439 meters above sea level. The town is situated on the west bank of the Blue Nile at a distance of 360 kilometers to the southeast of the capital, Khartoum, and 60 kilometers from the city of Sennar. Its population was recorded to be 259,000 in 2002.
The Rapid Support Forces is a paramilitary force formerly operated by the Government of Sudan. The RSF grew out of, and is primarily composed of, the Janjaweed militias which previously fought on behalf of the Sudanese government. Its actions in Darfur qualify as crimes against humanity in the opinion of Human Rights Watch.
The following lists events during 2023 in the Republic of the Sudan.
A civil war between two rival factions of the military government of Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the Janjaweed leader Hemedti, began during Ramadan on 15 April 2023. Fighting has been concentrated around the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region. As of 21 January 2024, at least 13,000–15,000 people had been killed and 33,000 others were injured. As of 5 July 2024, over 7.7 million were internally displaced and more than 2.1 million others had fled the country as refugees, and many civilians in Darfur have been reported dead as part of the Masalit massacres.
The battle of Khartoum is an ongoing major battle for control of Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, with fighting in and around the city between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the Sudanese Armed Forces. The battle began on 15 April 2023, after the RSF captured Khartoum International Airport, several military bases, and the presidential palace, starting an escalating series of clashes.
The following is a timeline of the Sudanese civil war (2023–present) in 2023.
The Battle of Nyala was a battle for control of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur in Sudan, between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the Sudanese Armed Forces during the ongoing Darfur campaign. The first battle occurred between 15 and 20 April 2023, during which hundreds were reported dead. A civilian-brokered ceasefire paused the fighting by April 20. Sporadic clashes broke out between May and July. In August 2023, the RSF launched an offensive on the city. The SAF launched air campaigns against the RSF in Nyala, with many civilian casualties in Taiba and El Matar. In late September, the RSF besieged the headquarters the SAF's 16th Infantry Division headquarters, capturing it on October 26.
The siege of El Fasher is an ongoing battle for control of the town of El Fasher in North Darfur during the Sudan conflict. The first battle for the city took place between 15 and 20 April 2023, and resulted in a ceasefire that held until 12 May. Clashes broke out again between 12 and 29 May, and ended with a more stable ceasefire that lasted until August. By September, the city had become a haven for refugees across the region, without enough food and water.
The siege of El Obeid was a siege in El-Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, during the 2023 Sudan conflict. The battle began on April 15, and saw the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) capture the El Obeid airport from the Sudanese Army contingent in the city. Throughout April and May, the Sudanese Army repelled several RSF assaults on the city, although by May 30, the RSF fully surrounded the city and laid siege to it.
The Battle of Kutum was a conflict during the War in Sudan which occurred in and around the town of Kutum in North Darfur. The Rapid Support Forces quickly overran the city, and carried out massacres in the city and the neighboring Kassab IDP camp. The group then attacked neighboring villages in early June.
The civil war in Sudan, which started on 15 April 2023, has seen widespread war crimes committed by both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with the RSF being singled out by the Human Rights Watch, and the United Kingdom and United States governments for committing ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
The following lists events during 2024 in the Republic of the Sudan.
The Battle of Wad Madani was a battle in the Sudanese civil war over the control of Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira State in east-central Sudan, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The battle ended in an RSF victory on 19 December 2023.
The Siege of Babanusa was a siege during the War in Sudan. The siege started when fighting erupted between the RSF and the SAF on 22 January 2024.
The Popular Resistance, also known as the Popular mobilisation, is a conglomerate of armed factions in Sudan that was formed in response to the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This conflict, rooted in a power struggle within the country's military structure, erupted into full-scale war on 15 April 2023.
The following is a timeline of the Sudanese civil war (2023–present) in 2024.
The Wad Al-Noora massacre started at around 05:00 (GMT+2) on 5 June 2024, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked the village of Wad Al-Noora in Al-Jazira state twice, killing at least 100 civilians. The massacre followed after the RSF sieged and opened fire on the village.