Sudan's Army Chief Vows to Retake Every Inch of RSF-Held Territory as Fighting Widens

Sudan's top military commander has ruled out any negotiated settlement with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), pledging instead to press ahead with a "military option" until the group is driven out of the country entirely. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), made the declaration on Tuesday while speaking to a gathering in Village 5, a community in the northern locality of Merowe, according to the state-run Sudan News Agency.

In his remarks, al-Burhan promised that his forces would recover "every inch" of territory currently under RSF control. The statement amounts to a formal rejection of talks aimed at halting a war that has now stretched for three and a half years, and it signals that the country's ruling military establishment sees no room for a power-sharing arrangement with its former allies.

The conflict erupted in April 2023 after a bitter falling-out between the leaders of the army and the RSF over plans to fold the paramilitary force into the regular military structure. That dispute, which began as a question of command and integration, quickly spiralled into a nationwide civil war. The cumulative human cost has been staggering: tens of thousands of people have been killed, and roughly 13 million have been uprooted from their homes, according to figures compiled by the United Nations and other international observers.

Tuesday's violence underscored how broadly the fighting has spread. In West Kordofan state, a local charity organisation, the Dar Hamar Emergency Committee, reported that at least 10 civilians were killed and several others wounded during an RSF attack. The committee accused the paramilitary group of committing multiple violations against residents of Abu Ajal village, situated in the southeastern countryside of En Nahud.

The attack did not occur in isolation. According to the account, RSF fighters have been concentrating their forces in West Kordofan as the army pushes toward the cities of En Nahud and Al Khuway, building on recent battlefield gains in neighbouring North Kordofan. That momentum appeared to be the backdrop for al-Burhan's defiant speech, which framed continued combat as the only viable path forward.

The humanitarian fallout is also expanding far from Kordofan. In Blue Nile state, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday that more than 5,500 people had fled their villages over a three-day span as security conditions deteriorated. The displacement adds to an already overwhelming caseload, with aid agencies warning that the country's capacity to absorb newly uprooted families is nearing its limit.

Diplomatic efforts have meanwhile produced little consensus. Massad Boulos, a senior adviser to United States President Donald Trump for Arab and African affairs, argued in a post on X on Monday that Sudanese parties themselves must take the lead in any peace process. Boulos said a settlement could only be reached "through an inclusive Sudanese-owned and Sudanese-led national dialogue, transition toward a civilian-led government."

That position echoes a stance the US State Department took last month, when it stated that neither the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the RSF, nor their respective leaders, "represent legitimate, constitutional governance for Sudan." The formulation effectively withholds recognition from both warring camps, leaving open the question of who could credibly sit at a negotiating table.

Analysts note that al-Burhan's latest comments close off the most obvious diplomatic avenue at a moment when the army believes it holds the upper hand militarily. By committing publicly to total territorial recovery, the general has narrowed his own room for manoeuvre, making any future reversal appear as a concession to a force his government has branded illegitimate.

For civilians caught in the middle, the practical consequences are severe. Each new front opens fresh displacement routes, strains already fragile health facilities, and disrupts the planting and harvest cycles that rural communities depend on for survival. The Kordofan corridor in particular links Sudan's eastern and western regions, and control over it carries both strategic and economic weight.

The RSF's massing in West Kordofan suggests the group intends to contest the army's advance rather than yield ground. If En Nahud and Al Khuway become active battlefronts, local observers fear a repeat of the urban warfare that has devastated other Sudanese cities, with civilians bearing the heaviest burden. The Dar Hamar Emergency Committee's casualty report is only the most recent indication of that risk.

Regional and international mediators have repeatedly attempted to broker humanitarian truces, but those efforts have collapsed amid mutual accusations and a lack of enforcement mechanisms. The deadlock has left humanitarian organisations to operate in an environment where access is unpredictable and security guarantees are almost nonexistent.

Al-Burhan's address in Merowe, a town with symbolic resonance in northern Sudan, appeared designed to project resolve to both his own ranks and outside observers. Whether the army can translate that rhetoric into durable territorial gains remains uncertain, particularly as the RSF retains significant fighting capacity and continues to mount attacks across multiple states.

What is clear is that the war's trajectory points toward further escalation in the near term. With the military leadership rejecting negotiations outright and the United States pressing for a Sudanese-led political process, the gap between battlefield logic and diplomatic ambition has rarely been wider — and the civilians of Kordofan, Blue Nile and beyond will continue to pay the price.