Sudan’s army on Friday retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the final closely guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces within the capital, after practically two years of combating.
The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by authorities ministries, was a significant symbolic victory for Sudan’s army towards the paramilitary Speedy Help Forces — although it probably doesn’t suggest the tip of the warfare because the RSF holds territory in Sudan’s western Darfur area and elsewhere.
SUDAN’S ARMY DENOUNCES VIDEO ALLEGEDLY SHOWING ITS TROOPS CARRYING SEVERED HEADS OF ENEMIES
Social media movies confirmed Sudanese troopers contained in the palace, giving the date because the twenty first day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month, which corresponds to Friday. A Sudanese army officer carrying a captain’s epaulettes made the announcement within the video and confirmed the troops have been contained in the compound.
The palace seemed to be in ruins, with troopers’ stepping on damaged tiles. Troops carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the best!”
Khaled al-Aiser, Sudan’s info minister, stated the army had retaken the palace in a publish on the social platform X.
A military soldier walks in entrance of the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, after it was taken over by Sudan’s military Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Picture)
“Immediately the flag is raised, the palace is again and the journey continues till victory is full,” he wrote.
Later, curious residents wandered by way of the palace. Partitions stood pockmarked by rifle rounds. Smears of blood led to useless our bodies, lined haphazardly with blankets.
Palace’s fall a symbolic and strategic second
The autumn of the Republican Palace — a compound alongside the Nile River that was the seat of presidency earlier than the warfare erupted and is immortalized on Sudanese banknotes and postage stamps — marks one other battlefield achieve for Sudan’s army, which has made regular advances in current months beneath military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.
It additionally signifies that the rival RSF fighters, beneath Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been largely expelled from the capital, Khartoum. Sporadic gunfire could possibly be heard all through the capital Friday, although it wasn’t clear if it concerned combating or was celebratory.
Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese military, stated its troops are holding the palace, surrounding ministry buildings and the Arab Market to the south of the advanced.
Khartoum Worldwide Airport, just some 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) southeast of the palace, has been held by the RSF for the reason that begin of the warfare in April 2023.
Suleiman Sandal, a politician related to the RSF, acknowledged the army took the palace and known as it a part of “the ups and downs” of historical past.
The RSF later issued an announcement claiming its forces “are nonetheless current of the neighborhood of the realm, combating bravely.” A drone assault on the palace believed to have been launched by the RSF reportedly killed troops and journalists with Sudanese state tv.
Late Thursday, the RSF claimed it seized management of the Sudanese metropolis of al-Maliha, a strategic desert metropolis in North Darfur close to the borders with Chad and Libya. Sudan’s army has acknowledged combating round al-Maliha, however has not stated it misplaced town.
Al-Maliha is round 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of town of El Fasher, which stays held by the Sudanese army regardless of near-daily strikes by besieging RSF.
The top of the U.N. kids’s company has stated that Sudan’s battle has created the world’s largest humanitarian disaster. UNICEF on Friday individually decried the looting of meals support meant to go to malnourished kids at Al Bashir Hospital on Khartoum’s outskirts.
“Business provides and humanitarian support have been blocked for greater than three months because of ongoing battle alongside key routes,” UNICEF warned. “The result’s a extreme scarcity of meals, medication and different necessities, with 1000’s of civilians trapped in energetic combating.”
The warfare has killed greater than 28,000 folks, compelled tens of millions to flee their properties and left some households consuming grass in a determined try to survive as famine sweeps elements of the nation. Different estimates counsel a far larger demise toll.
The Republican Palace grew to become the seat of energy through the British colonization of Sudan. It additionally noticed among the first flags of unbiased Sudan raised in 1956. The advanced had additionally been the primary workplace of Sudan’s president and different high officers.
The Sudanese army has lengthy focused the palace and its grounds, shelling and firing on the compound.
Sudan has confronted years of chaos and warfare
Sudan, a nation in northeastern Africa, has been unstable since a preferred rebellion compelled the elimination of longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A brief-lived transition to democracy was derailed when Burhan and Dagalo led a army coup in 2021.
The RSF and Sudan’s army started combating one another in 2023.
For the reason that begin of the 12 months, Burhan’s forces, together with Sudan’s army and allied militias, have superior towards the RSF. They retook a key refinery north of Khartoum, pushed in on RSF positions round Khartoum itself. The combating has led to a rise in civilian casualties.
Al-Bashir faces expenses on the Worldwide Felony Court docket over finishing up a genocidal marketing campaign within the early 2000s within the western Darfur area with the Janjaweed militia, the RSF precursor. Rights teams and the U.N. accuse the RSF and allied Arab militias of once more attacking ethnic African teams on this newest warfare.
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For the reason that warfare started, each the Sudanese army and the RSF have confronted allegations of human rights abuses. Earlier than U.S. President Joe Biden left workplace, the State Division declared the RSF are committing genocide.
The army and the RSF have denied committing abuses.
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