Gen Mohamed Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, is threatening to attack the seat of the military-backed government in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, along with northern cities that have so far been untouched by the country's two years of civil war.
The threat coincides with witness accounts of heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum, where the army and its allies are advancing slowly towards the presidential palace and government ministries.
“Monday is the anniversary of the creation of the Rapid Support Forces and we will turn it into a day of regret and grief for the army,” Gen Dagalo said in a video posted on social media on Saturday. “Fighting will be different and we will come from any and everywhere, and will at the end triumph over the army.”
He had threatened in the early days of the war to march on Port Sudan, where army chief and Sudan's de facto ruler Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his senior staff have been based for more than a year.
On Saturday, however, Gen Dagalo threatened to march on cities north of the capital, including Atbara, Shendi and Dongola, to capture the “criminals” there, an apparent reference to those who once supported ousted dictator Omar Al Bashir and are now allied with the army against the RSF.
The north and east of Sudan had not been affected by the war between the army and the RSF, which broke out in April 2023 after months of tension between the two generals vying for control of the country.
However, the RSF made rapid advances in the early days of the conflict, capturing the capital's international airport, government ministries, the presidential palace and most of the armed forces' headquarters, as well as a string of military bases and industrial complexes.
The paramilitary continues to control most of the western Darfur region and parts of Kordofan to the south-west of the capital, but its forces have been thrown out of large parts of the greater capital's three sister cities – Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman – as well areas south of the capital in central Sudan.
Gen Dagalo vowed in his latest address to defend the presidential palace from the army. He also encouraged Sudanese citizens in the impoverished east of the country to rise up against the military.
Witnesses on Sunday said troops and volunteers have advanced to within 2km of the palace, capturing a complex of office and residential towers called Abraj Al Nilein, and the landmark site of the national archives. Videos posted online purported to show volunteer fighters celebrating at each site.
Gen Dagalo was visibly angry in the 13-minute address.
“It appeared to be disjointed and not focused,” prominent analyst and publisher Osman Al Mirghani said. “It's very clear that he's reached an advanced stage of despair. He was unable to give an address that makes a point or delivers a clear message.”
The war in Sudan has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 10 million people. It has also created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with about 26 million, more than half of the population, facing acute hunger.
There are pockets of famine, mainly in the west, which are forecast to spread unless a major relief operation gets under way soon.
Gen Dagalo's address and the army's battlefield advances in Khartoum came as residents of the capital and central regions reported large-scale abuse by volunteers allied with the army, and a wave of looting by armed criminal gangs.
They said the worst abuse was taking place in Wad Medani, capital of the agriculture-rich Al Jazira state that was retaken from the RSF last year.
Other areas that have suffered a near-total breakdown of law and order are in the capital, especially in Omdurman, where residents are reporting widespread looting by gangs in military uniform.
The lawlessness in the capital prompted one of Gen Al Burhan's senior aides, Yasser Al Atta, to order immediate steps to combat crime during a meeting last Tuesday with members of the capital's security committee.
On the same day, the committee called on the police and members of security agencies to return to their pre-war jobs within 48 hours.
“It's a very serious problem, especially in Wad Medani, where some residents, who had earlier been displaced, returned home after the army retook the city, only to leave again because of the abuses against civilians by the volunteers,” said Mr Al Mirghani. “Regrettably, some of the volunteers are finding themselves in a position where they can take advantage of being armed in the face of innocent, unarmed civilians.”
Neighbours of Khartoum resident Hamed Othman were caught in the crossfire between the army and the RSF in the southern Khartoum district. Mr Othman, however, said life has become just as harrowing after the army and its allies rid the area of the RSF.
“We are being subjected to chaos and lawlessness the like of which we had never experienced before,” he said. “We are getting robbed by armed men wearing different military fatigues. There are no police to protect us and there's also a total absence of the rule of law. Ironically, there is an entire market now in our district that sells furniture and electric appliances looted from our homes.”
The army and the RSF face accusations by the UN and international rights groups of abuse against civilians in the war, with the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity by the paramilitary in Darfur.
Both Gen Al Burhan and his one-time ally Gen Dagalo are under US sanctions because of their role in the war.
Al Shafie Ahmed was reporting from Kampala, Uganda
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