The Sudanese armed forces broke Tuesday a paramilitary siege on the key southern city of Kadugli, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan confirmed, marking the latest reversal of a paramilitary offensive through the Kordofan region.

South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of Sudan's nearly three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

"Congratulations to the people of Kadugli on the arrival of the armed forces," Burhan said in a brief interview aired by state television.

"The army will reach every part of Sudan," he added.

An RSF source confirmed the army advance and said the paramilitary would re-encircle the city.

State broadcaster Sudan TV aired footage it said was of people in Kadugli celebrating and flashing victory signs as military personnel passed atop army vehicles.

"This is a great day, people welcome the army, women ululated, even the children celebrated," Issa Tih, a resident of Kadugli, told AFP by phone.

"We lived through incredibly hard times, but we thank God," he added.

The blockade was enforced by RSF fighters and their allies, a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu.

As famine closed in, around 80% of Kadugli's population, about 147,000 people, were forced to flee the city, the U.N. said last week.

The wider Kordofan region is currently the war's fiercest battleground, where hundreds of thousands face starvation.

After seizing the army's last Darfur foothold of el-Fasher in October, the RSF pushed deeper into Kordofan in an attempt to retake Sudan's central corridor.

They had intensified their siege on Kadugli and the nearby town of Dilling, where the army pushed through paramilitary lines in late January.

According to one army source, troops advancing from Dilling along the volatile 100-kilometer (62.14 miles) corridor defeated RSF and SPLM-N units following "fierce battles."

An RSF source told AFP that army forces "infiltrated Dilling and Kadugli through rugged areas where forces were not present."

"But we are still near the two cities and will continue to besiege them," he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Since the conflict erupted in April 2023, it has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million people and driven multiple regions into hunger and famine.

'Indescribable joy'

Mohammed Jumaa, another resident of Kadugli who remained in the city throughout the siege, said he felt "indescribable joy" on Tuesday.

"These last few months, we have been terrified the RSF would enter Kadugli and do what it did in el-Fasher," he told AFP.

The U.N. has repeatedly warned of atrocities unfolding in Kordofan to echo the summary killings, abductions and sexual violence reported in the RSF's takeover of North Darfur state capital el-Fasher last year.

To escape, some have been forced to trek through the rocky spine of the Nuba Mountains, in long and perilous journeys.

Those that stayed, like Jumaa, "were so hungry we ate leaves" to survive.

For months, starving residents were trapped under artillery and drone strikes, as some ate "whatever they can find in the forest", at times leading to poisoning deaths.

In recent months, the violence in Kordofan has included drone strikes killing dozens at a time, and forced at least 88,000 people to flee between October and January, according to UN data.

In comments to Saudi TV channel Al-Arabiya, Burhan said there would be "no truce, no ceasefire so long as the RSF occupies cities".

"We respond to all calls for peace, but we will not sell out the blood of the Sudanese people," he added.

Sudan's army last month received the latest truce proposal, presented by the United States and Saudi Arabia, but has not yet accepted it.