Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces say they have killed hundreds of army soldiers and allied militiamen in fighting around a strategic axis that links the capital with North Kordofan and White Nile State.

The axis is used by Sudan’s military to supply its forces in North Kordofan, where it is fighting the RSF to defend the regional capital Al Obeid – which has come under growing pressure from the paramilitary.

Maintaining control of Al Obeid is essential to the military’s plans to seize western and Southern Kordofan and later move to recapture the western region of Darfur, most of which is in the hands of the RSF.