I'll be honest, after the initial outbreak of hostilities and the RSF seizing various places, within a week or so, the Sudanese Armed Forces seemed like they had retaken a lot of key areas including Port Sudan and the airbases initially overrun, but now as more weeks have passed and we're in the second week of fighting, just glancing at the new unofficial maps that OSINT accounts are throwing up, it appears like the RSF is actually gaining a lot of a territory in Khartoum, at least compared to the situation a while ago.
I wonder if there's something similar going on with the rest of the country. RSF's main base of power seemed to be in the troubled Darfur region in the West of the country.
These maps are obviously deceiving btw. Not only due to the obvious low confidence of accuracy you'd get from maps in general, but these maps give the illusion that Khartoum for example... is surrounded by a sea of Sudanese Armed Forces controlled territory and that's not necessarily the case. It's a lot of empty and rural areas and history has shown time and time again that across the vast expanses of Sudan,
offensives can be launched halfway across the country over hundreds of miles and sometimes with legitimate surprise.
The truly unfortunate thing is that neither the SAF or the RSF Rebels really seem to have the best interests of the general population and its desires in mind, but they do have the largest proportion of the firepower so the fate of the country is up to them at the moment.
Some other developments. Along with both sides having reportedly engaged in crimes against the civilian population, there's been widespread looting including of World Food Programme warehouses. The below post by a Sudanese Reporter with the BBC seems to indicate that the RSF are responsible for much of the looting.
Meanwhile the Governor of the disputed Darfur region has taken a reportedly neutral stance on the conflict but recently stated that residents should take up arms and "defend themselves from attacks." The location of the infamous Darfur Genocide back in the late 2000's, it's feared that Governor Minni Arko Minnawi's statements might actually inflame more inter-tribal tension in an area of the country that is already dealing with plenty of tribal instability. Conversely, with the RSF largely formed up of Arab North Africans, and Darfur (and Governor Minnawi) not being of Arab background and the the victims of previous genocidess, maybe this is actually the sensible call to make.
The governor’s call risks ingiting ethnic conflict among the tribes of Darfur, critics have said.
www.aljazeera.com
Anyways lots is happening.
www.dw.com
