By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-26 22:22:21 | Updated at 2025-04-05 01:35:04
1 week ago
Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrived at Khartoum’s recaptured presidential palace on Wednesday, declaring the capital “free” of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after nearly two years of war.
“Khartoum is free, it’s done,” said Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader, in a broadcast aired by state television, capping a multi-day campaign by his forces to retake central Khartoum’s state institutions.
On his first visit to the former seat of government since the army seized it, Burhan marched through the war-ravaged palace in military fatigues with his fist upheld, flanked by chanting soldiers amid shattered windows and halls littered with fighters’ cots.
When war broke out in April 2023 between Burhan and his former deputy, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the RSF quickly swept through the capital’s government district, forcing authorities to flee to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Despite the significant blows dealt to the RSF, analysts have warned the war is far from over, with the paramilitary on Wednesday announcing a new rebel alliance in the country’s south.
The army on Wednesday had cleared Khartoum’s airport of RSF fighters, and according to an army source encircled the RSF in its last major stronghold in the Khartoum area, just south of the city centre.
