Sudan’s military recaptures government seat in Khartoum

Sudanese government troops on Friday retook the Republican Palace, the government seat in Khartoum, after nearly two years of fighting. The palace was the last heavily entrenched base of rival paramilitary forces in the city. Social media videos showed soldiers celebrating inside and in front of the heavily damaged building. A Sudanese Armed Forces spokesperson said the army also destroyed and seized large quantities of the paramilitary troops’ equipment and supplies, the Sudan Tribune reported.

Sudan’s Minister of Information, Khalid Ali Aleisir, said the palace’s recapture was an important step forward in the ongoing conflict with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, or RSF.

France 24 News reported that Red Crescent aid volunteers found many bodies of civilians locals say were killed by the RSF in the area surrounding the palace. Both the paramilitary group and Sudan’s military have committed war crimes against civilians in the last two years, according to a United Nations fact-finding mission. Both sides deny these allegations.

Is the RSF losing? The Sudanese government’s army captured other central areas of Khartoum in addition to the palace, the Sudan Tribune reported. Ali Aleisir on Friday said RSF fighters were fleeing from several locations in Khartoum. But the RSF claimed its forces were still close to the palace and had killed government soldiers in a counterattack, according to a statement on Telegram. The Sudanese army has made significant gains in the last few months, but the RSF still has a strong presence in western Sudan, especially in Darfur, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

How did the fighting start? Fighting broke out in April 2023 after members of the two military groups, who jointly orchestrated a 2019 coup, could not agree on how to integrate and share power with one another. More than 8.9 million people are internally displaced due to the conflict and about 3 million have fled to other countries, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher's report on U.S. claims of genocide against the RSF.