Displaced Sudanese people who fled the Zamzam camp after it was taken over by the RSF found refuge in a vacant lot near Tawila, a town in North Darfur, on April 13, 2025. (Credit: AFP)
Paramilitary forces attacked a Sudanese border town Tuesday, they and local authorities said, in what an army source told AFP was the latest attack launched "from inside Ethiopian territory."
Sudan's army-aligned government has for months accused their rivals, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, of launching attacks from Ethiopian soil.
Authorities in the town of Geissan said the RSF and their allies, a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, attacked the town and its surrounding farms on Tuesday morning.
"Our forces are confronting them and have inflicted heavy losses on their ranks," the military source said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.
There was no immediate comment from Ethiopian authorities.
In a statement, the RSF's self-declared government -- based across the country in Darfur -- said its forces had "liberated the strategic city of Geissan" and inflicted "heavy losses" on army troops.
AFP could not independently verify either claim.
Blue Nile state has in recent months become a key front in the war, with the RSF launching land offensives and intensifying drone strikes to challenge army control in southeastern Sudan.
This year alone, the fighting has displaced around 60,000 people across the state, according to United Nations figures.
Last month, the army recaptured the strategic border town of Kurmuk, advancing its push to secure the 153-kilometre (95-mile) highway linking the border region to El-Damazin, where it retains control.
Together, the RSF and SPLM-N-Hilu control the southern Blue Nile, which borders both Ethiopia and South Sudan.
In May, Sudan's government accused Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates of facilitating drone attacks launched from inside Ethiopia against several Sudanese states, including strikes on Khartoum and its airport.
The UAE is widely accused of arming the RSF, a charge it denies. Ethiopia has also rejected allegations that it hosts RSF or Emirati forces on its territory.
The latest clash comes as fighting has again flared in Ethiopia's Tigray region, prompting hundreds of Ethiopians to flee into Sudan earlier this month, according to Sudanese security and medical sources.
Ethiopia has previously accused Sudan of backing fighters linked to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which Sudan in turn denies.
