Sudan army advances in central Khartoum after retaking palace

KHARTOUM — Sudan's military said on Saturday it seized several key buildings in central Khartoum from paramilitary control after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan promised "full liberation" following the recapture of the presidential palace.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said the military was "continuing to pressure" the Rapid Support Forces throughout the city centre, giving a list of buildings recaptured including the central bank, state intelligence headquarters and the Sudan National Museum.

Sudan's national institutions in the city centre were all overrun and looted by paramilitaries in the first weeks after fighting erupted in April 2023.

On Friday, the army and allied armed groups retook the presidential palace from the RSF, which retaliated with a drone strike that killed three journalists and several army personnel.

The paramilitaries had used the palace to house their elite forces and stockpile ammunition, according to military sources.

The battle for Khartoum's government and financial district could consolidate the military's hold on the capital. It would provide a significant advantage in the country's devastating two-year war, but is unlikely to end it.

With its advance on Friday, the army has taken the entire left bank of the Blue Nile. It has also secured the main road route across the White Nile from the city centre to Khartoum's sister city of Omdurman.

Since April 2023, the military led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has fought the RSF, headed by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

After a year and a half of humiliating defeats, the tide seemed to turn late last year, when an army counteroffensive through central Sudan led to its recapture of much of Khartoum.

 'We will continue' 

Army chief Burhan said his forces were "advancing with steady steps towards the full liberation of Sudan", in a video shared by the army on Saturday.

"The battle is not over, we will continue," he said to cheers and ululations in Al-Kamlin, a town some 100 kilometres southwest of Khartoum, the day before.

The RSF did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on Saturday. But it too had vowed on Friday that the battle for the palace was "not over".

Army sources said the paramilitaries withdrew into buildings in Al-Mogran, an area just west of the palace housing banks and business headquarters.

The paramilitaries posted snipers in the district's high-rises, which overlook both Omdurman and the ministries of central Khartoum.

"Our forces in central Khartoum are continuing to pressure the Daglo thugs ... [who] are trying to escape from our forces," army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said.

He said the army had "eliminated hundreds of militia members who tried to escape through pockets in central Khartoum."

Analysts cautioned that even if the army went on to recapture the whole of greater Khartoum, it would not spell an end to Sudan's brutal war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.

Africa's third largest country remains effectively split in two, with the army holding the east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of the western region of Darfur and parts of the south.