The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has successfully broken the month-long siege of Dilling, retaking the key town of Al-Tukma after a decisive battle with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Dilling is the second largest city in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. With this victory, SAF reopened the critical highway linking North and South Kordofan, thwarting the paramilitary fighters’ attempts to consolidate their grip over the strategic region.
Dilling Battle
The Sudanese army announced on Monday that its forces, along with supporting units, repelled an attack by the RSF and allied militias on Dilling.
In a statement, the SAF Spokesperson said that the armed forces pushed back the militia fighters, inflicting heavy losses in personnel and equipment. As a result, the RSF was forced to retreat after their combat capabilities were decimated, the statement added.
In January 2026, the SAF announced it had successfully broken a long-running siege of Dilling following decisive military battles with the RSF and their local allies, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction (SPLA-N) led by Abdelaziz Al-Hilu.
However, the RSF and their allied militias re-imposed the siege in February after capturing the strategic town of Al-Tukma, situated just 7 kilometers east of Dilling.
Liberating Al-Tukma
The SAF statement on Monday noted that the Sudanese army liberated Al-Tukma following fierce battles that forced the RSF fighters to flee, leaving behind vehicles and hardware.
Military sources told Sudan Tribune that the army seized control of the town of Al-Tukma on Monday and succeeded in reaching Dilling accompanied by massive military reinforcements.
The sources explained that the army neutralized the threat from the city’s eastern outskirts and linked the Habila area with Dilling. This move effectively breaks the siege once again and reconnects Dilling with North Kordofan.
Meanwhile, a large force from the RSF moved into the Al-Tumat neighborhoods in western Dilling following an assault on the city involving fighters from South Sudan, before the army managed to repel the attack.
Prior to the assault, the RSF launched heavy artillery shelling across multiple locations, including the city’s main market and the headquarters of the 54th Infantry Brigade.
UN De-escalation Efforts
The UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, met on Monday with RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) in Nairobi to discuss practical ways to de-escalate the conflict and protect civilians.
The meeting followed similar discussions with the Chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council and SAF Commander-in-Chief, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the authorities in Khartoum, according to UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Haavisto also met with Egyptian officials, representatives of the League of Arab States and members of the Sudanese diaspora in Cairo over the weekend.
The meetings offered a “constructive opportunity” to exchange views on avenues for ending the conflict. All parties expressed their readiness to cooperate with the UN and Haavisto.
“This is encouraging and must swiftly translate into concrete progress towards ending the suffering of all Sudanese, once and for all,” Dujarric noted.
Sudan Conflict
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 between the RSF and the SAF, triggering what the UN called “the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis.”
So far, the conflict has killed 40,000 people, displacing over 12 million inside Sudan and to neighboring countries, and pushed parts of the country into famine amid cholera outbreaks.
Last week, a report by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) concluded that the RSF uses sexual violence as a weapon of war and a systematic means of controlling civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law.
