Sudan army recaptures presidential palace from paramilitaries

Sudan army recaptures presidential palace from paramilitaries

Sudan's army recaptured the presidential palace in Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces on Friday, dealing a major blow to the paramilitaries who responded with drone attacks that killed a news crew and soldiers.

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

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.

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 bandanas -- volunteer fighters who had taken up arms alongside the army -- waved flags and ululated behind shattered windows.

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

- '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.

"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."

If the army captures Khartoum, there will be "a fork in the road... either more war or a pivot to try and end this through peace talks," Boswell said.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, however, 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 at a funeral in the eastern town of Gedaref for two military personnel killed in Friday's drone strike.

- Sanctions -

The United States has sanctioned Burhan for reasons including the army's "lethal attacks on civilians." Washington also sanctioned RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo and said the paramilitaries had "committed genocide."

A retired Sudanese general said the RSF's withdrawal from greater Khartoum was "only a matter of time" after the army "broke their power and destroyed their equipment".

But RSF fighters are still scattered around the city centre, hiding in nearby buildings and stationed in part of the bombed out airport, military sources said.

The paramilitaries have kept up their shelling of army-held neighbourhoods from their remaining positions in the city's western and southern outskirts, the sources added.

"With the army entering the Republican Palace, which means control of central Khartoum, the militia has lost its elite forces," a military expert said, requesting anonymity for his safety.

The army announced an operation to "cleanse" the city centre of holdout RSF fighters.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said troops would "continue to progress on all fronts until victory is complete and every inch of our country is purged of the militia and its supporters".

But even if the military seizes Khartoum, Africa's third largest country, with an estimated population of 50 million people, remains divided.

The RSF controls much of the country's south and nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur -- crucial to their fighter base and resupply lines.

On Thursday the paramilitaries claimed control of al-Malha, in Darfur near the Libyan border.

ab-bha/it

Originally published as Sudan army recaptures presidential palace from paramilitaries