Sudan’s military yesterday said that it had retaken the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last bastion in the capital of rival paramilitary forces, after nearly two years of fighting.
Social media videos showed soldiers inside giving the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, which was yesterday. A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s epaulettes made the announcement in the video, and confirmed the troops were inside the compound.
The palace appeared to be partly in ruins, with soldiers’ steps crunching broken tiles underneath their boots. Soldiers carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the greatest.”
Photo: Social media via Reuters
The fall of the Republican Palace, a compound along the River Nile that was the seat of government before the war erupted and is immortalized on Sudanese banknotes and postage stamps, marks another battlefield gain for Sudan’s military. It has made steady advances under army chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan.
It means the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been expelled from the capital after Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023.
The group did not immediately acknowledge the loss, which likely would not stop the fighting as the RSF and its allies still hold territory elsewhere in Sudan.
The RSF late on Thursday said that it had seized control of al-Maliha, a strategic desert city in North Darfur. Sudan’s military has acknowledged fighting around al-Maliha, but has not said it lost the city.
Al-Maliha is about 200km north of the city of El Fasher, which remains held by the Sudanese military despite near-daily strikes by the RSF.
The war has killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the nation. Other estimates suggest a far higher death toll.
The Republican Palace had been the seat of power during the British colonization of Sudan. It also saw some of the first independent Sudanese flags raised over the nation in 1956. It had been the main office of Sudan’s president and other top officials.
The Sudanese military have long targeted the palace and its grounds, shelling and firing on the compound.
The nation has been unstable since a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocratic Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A short-lived transition to democracy was derailed when Burhan and Dagalo led a military coup in 2021.
The RSF and Sudan’s military then began fighting each other in 2023.
Burhan’s forces, including Sudan’s military and allied militias, have advanced against the RSF since the start of this year. They retook a key refinery north of Khartoum. They have also pushed in on RSF positions around the capital. The fighting has led to an increase in civilian casualties.
Al-Bashir faces charges at the International Criminal Court over carrying out a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s in the western Darfur region with the Janjaweed, the precursor to the RSF.
Rights groups and the UN accuse the RSF and allied Arab militias of again attacking ethnic African groups in the war.
Since the war began, both the Sudanese military and the RSF have faced allegations of human rights abuses. Before former US president Joe Biden left office, the US Department of State said that the RSF is committing genocide.
The military and the RSF have denied committing abuses.
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