Ahmed Younes

Dozens of fighters led by General Musa Khamsin have defected from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to the army, following earlier departures by senior commanders and political officials linked to the RSF-led Sudan Founding Alliance, Tasis. The Sudanese army is formalizing and integrating former RSF members, while RSF officials warn of suspected disloyalty within their military and political ranks. Analysts say the defections indicate weakening cohesion and declining faith in the RSF’s political project, but caution that they do not yet signal imminent collapse because the group can still recruit, deploy forces and launch attacks across several fronts. The decisive factors will be the rank and size of future defections and the RSF’s ability to replace losses and preserve command control.

The Sudanese army and allied groups claim to have recaptured several towns in North Kordofan and inflicted heavy losses on the Rapid Support Forces, while the RSF denies losing the territory. Local sources report repeated advances and withdrawals around Umm Sayala and Jabra al-Sheikh, leaving control of the towns unclear as fighting continues. Kordofan remains a strategic battleground in Sudan’s war, which has caused mass deaths, displacement, famine, and widespread humanitarian need.

Sudan says it is prepared to cooperate with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in investigating US allegations that its armed forces used chemical weapons in 2024. Khartoum disclosed that it held more than a year of bilateral consultations with Washington and repeatedly invited US experts to conduct an on-site investigation, but said the invitations were not accepted. Sudan rejects the resulting US sanctions as unsupported and politically motivated, while distinguishing the OPCW’s technical mandate from the UN Human Rights Council’s investigation into wartime violations. Separately, North Kordofan authorities accused the Rapid Support Forces of killing 15 civilians and wounding seven in an attack on Barbar.