Wild scenes as Sudan presidential palace recaptured by army

There was celebration in the war-town capital before a rebel group launched a retaliatory strike, killing soldiers and civilians.

Sudan’s army has recaptured the nation’s presidential palace after almost two years of brutal combat with a rebel group in what analysts say was a “massive blow” in the civil war.

Soldiers were seen jumping with joy or falling to their knees to pray at the palace in Khartoum – before a retaliatory drone attack killed several people, including journalists.

The victory, one of the military’s most significant in its two-year war with paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces, lends the army an advantage but not total control of the capital, while the rest of the country remains divided.

Sudanese army soldiers pose for pictures in the presidential palace in Khartoum. Picture: Al-Arabiya/AFP

Inside the palace along the Blue Nile River, state television broadcast scenes of fighters celebrating, before three crew members and a number of army personnel were killed in a drone strike, an army source reported.

They were “covering the army retaking the Republican Palace” when an RSF one-way attack drone struck the complex, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Information Minister Khalid al-Aiser said state television’s producer, video journalist and driver were among the dead.

Sudan's army recaptured the presidential palace after a fierce battle.

They celebrated in the palace afterwards. Pictures: AFP

In a statement shared to Telegram, the RSF said it had launched a “lightning operation” around the palace which “killed more than 89 enemy personnel and destroyed various military vehicles”.

“The battle for the Republican Palace is not over yet,” the RSF vowed, adding that their fighters remained nearby.

Witnesses reported multiple drones targeting the area.

In video footage broadcast by state television, young men in yellow bandannas – volunteer fighters who had taken up arms alongside the army – waved flags and ululated behind shattered windows.

This image grab from a UGC video posted on March 21, 2025 shows Sudanese soldiers celebrating.

The battle for power between Sudan’s rival generals began on April 15, 2023, when much of Khartoum quickly fell to the RSF including the palace.

Sudan’s west is largely controlled by the RSF which has moved toward portioning the country and has been setting up a parallel government.

‘Massive blow’

In the nearly two years since, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, including more than half of the estimated pre-war population of greater Khartoum.

It has triggered what UN chief Antonio Guterres called an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis on the African continent”.

After months of defeats for the army, the tide of the war seemed to turn late last year when the army launched a counteroffensive through central Sudan.

The recapture of the presidential palace, an emblem of Sudanese sovereignty, “is a massive blow for the RSF, in addition to a huge symbolic victory for the armed forces,” said International Crisis Group Horn of Africa director Alan Boswell.

People celebrate on the streets of Port Sudan after the army retook the palace. Picture: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP

“This is a huge turning point in the war. It’ll be very hard for the RSF to claim these are tactical withdrawals or to put a brave face on this defeat.”

Khartoum residents took to the streets following the army’s victory, with one local telling Reuters it was “the best news I’ve heard since the start of the war”.

Army chief and defacto Sudan ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed there would be “no negotiations until these people are no more,” referring to the RSF.

“So long as they carry arms, occupying people’s homes … striking fear into people every day, we have no words or peace for them,” he said.

Both sides have been sanctioned by the US and accused of war crimes, with the RSF also faces genocide allegations.