CAIRO — Sudan‘s military on Friday retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting. The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, was a major symbolic victory for Sudan’s military against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces -- though it likely doesn’t mean the end of the war as the RSF holds territory in Sudan’s western Darfur region and elsewhere. Social media videos showed Sudanese soldiers inside the palace, giving the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month, which corresponds to Friday. A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s epaulettes made the announcement in the video and confirmed the troops were inside the compound. The palace appeared to be in ruins, with soldiers' stepping on broken tiles. Troops carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the greatest!” Khaled al-Aiser, Sudan’s information minister, said the military had retaken the palace in a post on the social platform X. “Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete,” he wrote. Later, curious residents wandered through the palace. Walls stood pockmarked by rifle rounds. Smears of blood led to dead bodies, covered haphazardly with blankets. Palace’s fall a symbolic and strategic moment The fall of the Republican Palace -- a compound along the Nile River that was the seat of government before the war erupted and is immortalized on Sudanese banknotes and postage stamps -- marks another battlefield gain for Sudan’s military, which has made steady advances in recent months under army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan. It also means that the rival RSF fighters, under Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been mostly expelled from the capital, Khartoum. Sporadic gunfire could be heard throughout the capital Friday, though it wasn’t clear if it involved fighting or was celebratory. Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese military, said its troops are holding the palace, surrounding ministry buildings and the Arab Market to the south of the complex. Khartoum International Airport, only some 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) southeast of the palace, has been held by the RSF since the start of the war in April 2023. Suleiman Sandal, a politician associated with the RSF, acknowledged the military took the palace and called it part of “the ups and downs” of history. The RSF later issued a statement claiming its forces “are still present of the vicinity of the area, fighting bravely.” A drone attack on the palace believed to have been launched by the RSF reportedly killed troops and journalists with Sudanese state television. Late Thursday, the RSF claimed it seized control of the Sudanese city of al-Maliha, a strategic desert city in North Darfur near the borders with Chad and Libya. Sudan’s military has acknowledged fighting around al-Maliha, but has not said it lost the city. Al-Maliha is around 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the city of El Fasher, which remains held by the Sudanese military despite near-daily strikes by besieging RSF. The head of the UN children’s agency has said that Sudan’s conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. UNICEF on Friday separately decried the looting of food aid meant to go to malnourished children at Al Bashir Hospital on Khartoum’s outskirts. “Commercial supplies and humanitarian aid have been blocked for more than three months due to ongoing conflict along key routes,” UNICEF warned. “The result is a severe shortage of food, medicine and other essentials, with thousands of civilians trapped in active fighting.” The war has killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country. Other estimates suggest a far higher death toll. The Republican Palace became the seat of power during the British colonization of Sudan. It also saw some of the first flags of independent Sudan raised in 1956. The complex had also been the main office of Sudan’s president and other top officials. The Sudanese military has long targeted the palace and its grounds, shelling and firing on the compound. Sudan has faced years of chaos and war Sudan, a nation in northeastern Africa, has been unstable since a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A short-lived transition to democracy was derailed when Burhan and Dagalo led a military coup in 2021. The RSF and Sudan’s military began fighting each other in 2023. Since the start of the year, Burhan’s forces, including Sudan’s military and allied militias, have advanced against the RSF. They retook a key refinery north of Khartoum, pushed in on RSF positions around Khartoum itself. The fighting has led to an increase in civilian casualties. Al-Bashir faces charges at the International Criminal Court over carrying out a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s in the western Darfur region with the Janjaweed militia, the RSF precursor. Rights groups and the U.N. accuse the RSF and allied Arab militias of again attacking ethnic African groups in this latest war. Since the war began, both the Sudanese military and the RSF have faced allegations of human rights abuses. Before U.S. president Joe Biden left office, the State Department declared the RSF are committing genocide. The military and the RSF have denied committing abuses. ___ Samy Magdy And Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
