Sudan’s army recaptures presidential palace in pivotal advance

After weeks of fighting, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s paramilitary fighters have been forced from their last remaining holdout in Khartoum

Sudanese soldiers celebrate after retaking the presidential palace in Khartoum in an image taken from a video. Picture: AFP

The Sudanese military seized back control of the presidential palace in Khartoum, the last remaining bastion of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the capital, marking a major turning point in a nearly two-year conflict that has left much of the nation in ruins.

Government troops entered the palace compound early Friday after days of intense fighting, said military spokesman Nabil Abdallah. Video shared online showed troops carrying Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers inside the palace, surrounded by broken tiles, shattered glass windows and debris strewn across the compound overlooking the Nile River.

The Rapid Support Forces took control of all three municipalities that make up Khartoum in the early days of the war in April 2023 when they turned against the military-aligned government, forcing it to flee to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. The capture of the palace, which was the seat of government before the war erupted, is a major boost to the military’s seven-month offensive to drive rebel fighters out of the capital.

“We are moving forward along all fighting axes until victory is complete, by cleansing every inch of our country from the filth of this militia,” said Abdallah, the military spokesman.

Sudanese soldiers celebrate outside the palace in Khartoum. Picture: Sudanese Armed Forces via AP

Areas around the presidential palace have witnessed some of the heaviest combat in recent weeks after the army surged through Khartoum retaking territories lost during the early stages of the conflict.

The war was triggered by a power struggle between Sudan’s de facto president, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his former deputy and RSF commander, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The fighting has since left tens of thousands dead and more than 12 million displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations.

In recent months, the military, led by Burhan, has appeared to turn the tide of the war, reclaiming swathes of territory in central and southern Sudan before shifting the focus to Khartoum. The RSF’s losses prompted the paramilitary to consolidate its control over the western region of Darfur, where it was accused by the US in January of genocide for how its mostly Arab fighters have killed thousands of Black Sudanese. The US also accused Burhan of war crimes, mostly for using warplanes to bomb civilian populations. Burhan and the RSF have denied the accusations.

Some RSF fighters attempted to flee the palace on Thursday but their convoy of more than two dozen vehicles was hit, according to state media. Video footage on Sudanese state television showed drones striking vehicles in the convoy and a massive fire south of the palace.

Some observers fear that the RSF, whose precursor, the Janjaweed militias, killed some 200,000 Black Sudanese in the early 2000s may be moving Sudan toward de facto partition following recent losses.

“The RSF are certainly in the process of losing their grip on Khartoum,” said Eric Reeves, a Sudan expert at the Rift Valley Institute, a think tank based in Kenya. “They may now focus on Darfur, where their vengefulness over losses will be furious.”

Last week, the RSF commander, Dagalo, vowed to continue fighting and insisted that his fighters wouldn’t withdraw from the presidential palace. On Friday, the group said it would attempt to recapture the compound.

Cameron Hudson, a former State Department official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said the capture of the palace would allow the army to cement its control over the capital.

“This is a major tactical and strategic defeat for the RSF and its backers,” he said. “The RSF will have to content itself with challenging the army’s authority from Darfur, which will relegate its credibility to nothing more than a regional militia group and not the national contender for authority.”

Bullet-riddled buildings in Omdurman, Sudan. Photo: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP

Witnesses said gunfire and explosions could be heard across Khartoum as the military, backed by drones and artillery, fought to drive the last remaining fighters out of the city. Retreating rebel fighters have consolidated their presence in Darfur, where the UN says famine is spreading in multiple locations.

In Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, where the UN declared famine in August last year, RSF fighters have blocked all roads, halting all food and medical supplies to the settlement hosting more than half a million residents. Entire towns and food markets have burned down during attacks, triggering mass displacement of people, the UN said.

“Aid workers have been forced to ration water and supply stocks to sustain operations for as long as possible,” said Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman. “The main stabilisation centre in the camp remains closed due to a lack of essential medical supplies, leaving severely malnourished children at extreme risk.”

The Wall Street Journal