The Sudan army said on Friday that it reproached the Republican Palace to Khartoum, the last strongly guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after almost two years of fighting.
The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, represents a major symbolic victory for the soldiers of Sudan against the paramilitary forces of rapid support (RSF). However, this probably does not mean the end of the war, because the RSF holds a territory in the Western Darfur region of Sudan and elsewhere.
The war killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions of people to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive while famine is sweeping from the country’s parts. Other estimates suggest a much higher number of deaths.
Social media videos have shown his soldiers inside to give the date as 21st day of Ramadan, the month of sacred Muslim fast, which corresponds to Friday. A Sudanese military officer carrying captain’s shoulders made this announcement in the video and confirmed that the troops were inside the enclosure.
The palace seemed to be partly ruined, with steps from soldiers who climbed broken tiles under their boots. Soldiers carrying assault rifles and grenade launchers powered by rocket sung: “God is the greatest!”
Khaled al-Bains, Minister of Sudan, said the soldiers had taken over the palace in an article on the social platform X.
“Today, the flag is high, the palace is back and the trip continues until the victory is over,” he wrote.
The RSF subsequently published a statement claiming that its forces “are always present near the region, courageously fighting”. A drone attack on the palace was said to have been launched by the RSF would have killed troops and journalists on Sudanese state television.
Humanitarian aid hindered months of fighting
The Republican Palace, a compound along the Nile, had been the seat of power during the British colonization of Sudan. He also saw some of the first independent Sudanese flags raised above the country in 1956.
His fall marks another battlefield gain for the soldiers of Sudan. He has made regular advances in recent months under the military chief, General Abdel Fattah Burhan.
This means that the RSF Rival, under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, was mainly expelled from the capital, Khartoum, after the start of the Sudan War in April 2023.
Sporadic shots could be heard throughout the capital on Friday, although it was not clear if it involved fighting or was festive.
Brig. General Nabil Abdullah, spokesperson for the Sudanese army, described his troops as holding the palace, surrounding the buildings of the ministry and the Arab market south of the palace. Khartoum International Airport, just 2.5 kilometers south-east of the palace, has been held by the RSF since the start of the war.
Suleiman Sandal, a politician associated with the RSF, acknowledged that the government had taken the palace and called it part of the “ups and downs” in history.
Late Thursday, the RSF said that it had taken control of the Sudanese city in Al-Maliha, a strategic desert city in northern Darfur near the borders of Chad and Libya. The Sudan army recognized the struggle around Al-Maliha but did not say that it had lost the city.
Al-Maliha is approximately 200 kilometers north of the city of El Fasher, which remains owned by the Sudanese army despite the almost per day strikes by the surrounding RSF.
The head of the United Nations Children’s Agency said that the conflict had created the world’s largest and most devastating humanitarian crisis. On Friday, UNICEF decreed separately the looting of food aid intended to go to children suffering from malnutrition in the Al Bashir hospital on the outskirts of Khartoum.
“Commercial supplies and humanitarian aid have been blocked for more than three months due to current conflicts along key roads,” warned UNICEF. “The result is a serious shortage of food, medicine and other essential elements, with thousands of civilians trapped in active fights.”
Stirworm since the eviction of the autocrat Bashir
The Sudanese army has long targeted the palace and its land, bombing and pulling on the enclosure. Sudan has faced chaos years and has been unstable since a popular uprising forced the abolition of the longtime autocratic president Omar Al-Bashir in 2019.
Al-Bashir faces accusations at the International Criminal Court to carry out a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s in the western Darfur region with the Janjaweed, the precursor of the RSF. Right’s defense groups and the UN accuse the RSF and the Allied Arab militias of again attacking ethnic African groups in this war.
A short -lived transition to democracy after the eviction of Bashir derailed when Burhan and Dagalo led a military coup in 2021. The RSF and the soldiers of Sudan then began to fight in 2023.
Since the start of the war, the Sudanese army and the RSF have faced allegations of human rights violations.
Before US President Joe Biden left his duties, the State Department said that the RSF was committing a genocide. The soldiers and the RSF denied having committed abuse.
