Sudanese army tightens grip on Khartoum as fighting intensifies
February 7, 2025 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s army has escalated its offensive in Khartoum, advancing from the southern and eastern outskirts of the capital and engaging in fierce battles with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) within the city.
The army’s armoured corps released footage of officers and soldiers in front of the Traffic Signs and License Plates Factory on al-Ghaba Street and north of the Currency Printing Press. Al-Ghaba Street leads to central Khartoum and the Mugran area west of the city centre.
In the video, an officer said the army controlled the entire industrial area and vowed to reach RSF positions within the strategic battalion. This was a military site formerly under army control that the RSF seized two months after the war erupted. He also said the army intended to advance into the Mugran area.
The same officer affirmed the army’s determination to regain control of the Arab Market in central Khartoum, home to the Presidential Palace and federal government institutions.
From southern Khartoum, soldiers released videos showing their recapture of al-Masoudiya, a town about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital, as they advanced toward the Giad Industrial City. The army aims to retake Giad, advance toward al-Bagir, and then move toward Soba in southern Khartoum, effectively closing the Soba Bridge to the west.
In eastern Khartoum, fierce clashes erupted on Friday morning in the East Nile locality and the al-Kafouri neighbourhood, the last RSF stronghold in Khartoum Bahri. The army deployed warplanes and heavy artillery.
Images showed army advances in Kafouri, Khartoum Bahri, and Ad Babikr in the eastern Nile, as well as the army’s control over the entrance to al-Haj Youssef and Station 13 in the al-Nasr neighbourhood.
On Friday morning, the army launched a large-scale ground offensive on RSF positions in the eastern Nile, preceded by intense airstrikes on RSF positions in Kafouri and al-Haj Youssef.
Army approaches Abu Quta
In the battle zones in the far northwest of al-Jazira state in central Sudan, the army has moved closer to Abu Quta, near Jebel al-Awliya in the southwest of Khartoum state, where RSF forces are heavily concentrated.
The Abu Quta Resistance Committees said in a statement on Friday that army troops were fighting near the entrance of Abu Quta, an area under RSF control since December 2023.
Earlier on Friday morning, the Abu Quta Resistance Committees reported fighting three kilometres away, later stating that clashes between the army and the last RSF outpost had moved to the city’s southern entrance.
Abu Quta is located northwest of al-Jazira state, close to the borders of Khartoum and White Nile states. It is about 65 kilometres (40 miles) from Jebel al-Awliya, where RSF forces are stationed.