Sudanese troops recaptured the fighting-covered presidential palace in Khartoum early on Friday, marking a potential turning point in Sudan's catastrophic civil war, and are now approaching its third year.
Videos and photos posted Friday morning showed soldiers victorious at the entrance to a devastated palace overlooking the Nile several days after a fierce battle with RSF, a powerful paramilitary group the Army is fighting for.
“We're inside!” cheering soldiers roamed around him, shouting at the unidentified officer in one video. “We're in the Republican palace!”
The Sudan Information Minister confirmed that the palace has returned to government control. “Today, the journey continues until the flag has been raised, the palace is back and the victory is complete,” Minister Khalid Ali Al Eiser wrote on social media.
It was a great iconic victory for the Sudanese army. This lost most of Khartoum to RSF in the early days of the war in April 2023. It also greatly boosted the troops' six-month drive to completely drive the troops out of the city.
A few days ago, RSF leader Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan had vowed to take his position. “Don't think we'll retreat from the palace,” he said last week at a video address from a private location.
However, the military and allied militias who gradually seized most of the northern and eastern parts of the city were pushed hard against their targets. Earlier on Thursday, the troops began a ferocious ambush on the RSF convoy south of the palace.
The shootings and explosions could be heard throughout the capital for much of Thursday.
“God is the biggest. We captured the Republican palace,” writes Misba Abu Zeid, leader of Bala ibn Malik Battalion, an Islamist militia that fought against the army as the battle moved to central Khartoum on social media.
It launched a massive counterattack last September. Since then, it has photographed strategic bridges on the Nile and seized the city's north and east in recent months.
The war broke out in April 2023. Tensions between the military chief, General Abdul Fatta al-Burhan, and General Hamdan of the RSF, together took power in a military coup in 2021, but were unable to agree on how to unite their troops.
The harsh casualties of the war have been revealed as the RSF withdraws from the eastern and north Khartoum since January.
The entire district has become a scorched wasteland, as New York Times reporters have seen in the city over the past week.
The vehicles surrounded by bullets are scattered across abandoned streets. The apartment blocks were either standing or looted, and the banks were blown away. White smoke swirling from a giant wheat silo.
In the city centre, Army snipers trained their rifles through the windows of a luxurious abandoned apartment overlooking the Nile River. At a far bank, the river fell to the side. A surveillance drone rang overhead.
Lace curtains swirling around the sergeant. Major General Ismail Hassan looked through binoculars at the bombed presidential residence.
“They deploy a lot of snipers in tall buildings,” the army officer said. “That's what makes it so difficult.”
He said the best snipers in the RSF came from Ethiopia. Documents found by the Times at a discarded RSF base in the city that lists recent Ethiopian recruits supported the idea.
One estimate shows that the capital's frontline population of around 8 million has dropped to 2 million. In the recently recaptured area, the Army has moved residents to temporary camps on the edge of the city. There, the Army is reviewing RSF sympathizers, several residents said.
There was an obvious sense of security for those still in town, where RSF was gone.
“Before they left, they asked for money,” said Kamal Juma, 42, as he pounded water from a broken pipe in the street. “If you couldn't pay, they shot you.”
Mr. Juma wiped the sweat off his forehead.
“We can't take this war any more,” he said.
Even if the military could drive the RSF out of Khartoum, there is little prospect of the war coming to an end anytime soon, analysts say.
What began as a feud of power between the two generals exploded into a much wider conflict fueled by bewildered foreign forces.
The UAE supports the RSF with guns, drones and mercenaries, the Times reports. The support has continued in recent months since the US denounced the RSF of genocide in January, according to two Western officials and some U.S. lawmakers.
The Emirates have denied support from paramilitary groups.
On the other side, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have sold, supplied or paid arms to Sudanese troops, two western officials said on conditions of anonymity discussing the delicate matter.
In parts of the city, wild bushes sprouted into empty streets, joining an apocalyptic atmosphere. The pre-war faded signs promoted the item at one tenth of its current price.
However, this picture is markedly different in Omdurman, located west of the elms, controlled by the Army. Here, the markets and restaurants were bustling, and even jewelry stores reopened as residents returned.
But even here, death is never far away.
On Monday night, a volley of RSF rocket landed on a quiet street where six neighbors gathered under the palm trees for a drink of coffee.
After an explosion rocked his house, Momar Atyatala stumbled through a cloud of dust and under the palm tree to his friend, “What happened, everyone?”
No one answered. All six men were killed, including a carpenter, a carpenter, a carpenter, a cart trader and a rickshaw driver, and two other men who were passing by the streets.
An hour after the strike, the lamented woman spilled down the dark street. There, stone-like male men picked up scraps of meat from the ground and gathered them in plastic bags. A distraught young girl ran in the past.
“Father!” she cried. “father!”
Abdalrahman Altayeb Reports of contributions.
