Sudan army recaptures presidential palace from RSF

KHARTOUM — The Sudanese army recaptured the presidential palace in Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces on Friday, dealing a major blow to the paramilitaries who responded with deadly drone attacks.

State television had broadcast scenes of fighters celebrating in the palace, before three of its journalists and a number of army personnel were killed in a drone strike, an army source reported.

They were "covering the army retaking the Republican Palace" when an RSF one-way attack drone struck the complex, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Information Minister Khalid Al Aiser said state television's producer, video journalist and driver were among the dead.

In a statement shared to Telegram, the RSF said it had launched a "lightning operation" around the palace which "killed more than 89 enemy personnel and destroyed various military vehicles".

"The battle for the Republican Palace is not over yet," the RSF vowed, adding that their fighters remained nearby.

Witnesses reported multiple drones targeting the area, where soldiers had celebrated through the blackened halls of the palace.

In video footage broadcast by state television, young men in yellow bandanas -- volunteer fighters who had taken up arms alongside the army -- waved flags and ululated behind shattered windows.

The devastating battle for power between Sudan's rival generals began on April 15, 2023, when much of Khartoum quickly fell to the RSF.

The infantrymen of the regular army had proved no match for the highly mobile paramilitaries in the battle for the capital's streets.

‘Massive blow' 

In the nearly two years since, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, including more than half of the estimated pre-war population of greater Khartoum.

After months of humiliating defeats for the army, the tide of the war seemed to turn late last year when the army launched a counteroffensive in the central farming state of Al-Jazira, taking advantage of the defection of a local commander.

The recapture of the presidential palace, an emblem of Sudanese sovereignty, "is a massive blow for the RSF, in addition to a huge symbolic victory for the armed forces," said International Crisis Group Horn of Africa director Alan Boswell.

"This is a huge turning point in the war. It'll be very hard for the RSF to claim these are tactical withdrawals or to put a brave face on this defeat."

Sudan's army-aligned government, based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, hailed the victory.

The information minister praised the "heroes" fighting alongside the army, a motley crew of groups including former democracy activists, Islamist militiamen and defectors from the RSF.

A retired Sudanese general said that the RSF's withdrawal from greater Khartoum was "only a matter of time" after the army "broke their power and destroyed their equipment".

But RSF fighters are still scattered around the city centre, hiding in nearby buildings and stationed in part of the bombed out airport, military sources said.

The paramilitaries have kept up their shelling of army-held neighbourhoods from their remaining positions in the city's western and southern outskirts, the sources added.

‘Complete' victory?

A military expert told AFP that the RSF had lost elite fighters in the battle for the presidential palace. 

"With the army entering the Republican Palace, which means control of central Khartoum, the militia has lost its elite forces," the expert said, requesting anonymity for their safety.

"Now the army has destroyed equipment, killed a number of their forces and seized control of one of its most important supply centres in Khartoum."

The army announced an operation to "cleanse" the city centre of holdout RSF fighters.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said troops would "continue to progress on all fronts until victory is complete and every inch of our country is purged of the militia and its supporters".

The army's retaking of the presidential palace may lead to its recapture of greater Khartoum but the vast western region of Darfur and much of the south remain largely in RSF hands.