Video-captured photo of Rapid Support Forces fighters in el-Fasher, North Darfur, May 2024 (Social media)

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said on Thursday it captured the strategic town of Al-Meriam in West Kordofan State near the border with South Sudan a month after the group took control of the state capital El-Fula.

RSF said it took Al-Meiram, which lies between Abyei Administrative Area and Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, on Thursday morning after seizing the local 22nd Infantry Division.

“The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) secured a significant victory in our ongoing campaign against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its extremist backers linked to the former regime,” the group said in a statement on X, (formerly Twitter).

The paramilitary outfit said it captured a substantial weaponry including 22 combat vehicles, six tanks, multiple mortars (82mm, 120mm, 60/75mm), rocket launchers (107mm), 50 doshkas, and seven B-10 recoilless rifles.

On Wednesday, Sudan army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah said the army pushed back an RSF attack on Al-Meiram.

“The armed forces thwarted a treacherous attack by the Al-Dagalo militia on Al-Meiram,” Nabil told Asharg Alwasat news outlet.

Meanwhile, RSF claimed that it killed 200 SAF soldiers and their allied militia during the operation, forcing the remaining forces to flee.

“The RSF is presently in pursuit of the retreating elements. Our successive victories over the SAF and its allied terrorist brigades signal the end of more than three decades of corruption and tyranny in our country.”

The Sudanese army is yet to comment on the latest incident.

The RSF, accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing, is already in effective control of Sudan’s borders with Chad, the Central African Republic, and Libya.

It has also captured several strategic locations in Sennar State and closes in to the Blue Nile and Gedaref States on the east of the country.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said an estimated 136,000 people have been displaced from different parts of Sennar State in southeastern Sudan following intense fighting between the army and RSF.

IOM said in its migration displacement matrix that clashes between the powerful military factions continue in the state capital Sinja and have spread to Sennar town.

The Sudan war erupted in April 15, 2023, between powerful military commanders, the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council General Al Burhan, and RSF’s General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, following a power wrangle.

The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.