The Sudanese army has broken the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ two-year siege of the strategic city of el-Obeid after the paramilitary group signed a charter paving the way for a breakaway government with its allies.

The Sudanese Armed Forces said Sunday it had retaken control of the town of el-Gitaina, south of the capital, Khartoum, and ended the siege on el-Obeid to the west, hours after the RSF signed a political charter in Kenya for a “government of peace and unity” to establish a parallel government with allied political and armed groups.

The signatories agreed that Sudan should be a “secular, democratic, non-centralised state” with a single national army, though it preserved the right of armed groups to continue to exist.

The RSF and the army have been fighting for control of the county since April 2023, and until last week, a third faction, Abdelaziz al-Hilu’s faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North had been fighting both the army and the RSF in the north of the country.

But in an unexpected turn of events, Hilu’s group was one of the key signatories to the RSF charter, providing a boost to the weakened paramilitary force led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemeti.

The RSF has conquered nearly all of Darfur, but is unable to cement its hold on the region and appears on the verge of losing all of Khartoum to the army.

Hilu controls much of South Kordofan state from his foothold in the Nuba Mountains, as well as pockets of Blue Nile state bordering Ethiopia.

The new rebel alliance could grant border access to neighbouring countries, all of whom, except Egypt, support the RSF.

“We reject any calls for the formation of parallel frameworks to the current framework in Sudan and affirm our full support for Sudan,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said at a press conference with his Sudanese counterpart Ali Youssef, adding that Sudan’s territorial integrity was a key concern for Egypt.

The alliance has drawn concern from the United Nations, and is a further sign of the splintering of the country during the war which has left tens of thousands of people dead and displaced at least 12 million, with gross human rights violations by all sides.

Hemeti has been accused of widespread abuses, including genocide, and was the subject of sanctions by the United States in January.

Famine was officially declared in December in five parts of Sudan, and the African Union has called the conflict the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The medical charity MSF said on Monday that it has been forced to suspend its activities in the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, due to escalating attacks and fighting in and around it.

The camp is faced with famine, and MSF’s field hospital was treating patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds.