Two years into a civil war, troops recaptured the palace in Khartoum, routing a paramilitary foe. Civilians have been trapped in the middle in a city with an apocalyptic air.
Two years into a civil war, troops recaptured the palace in Khartoum, routing a paramilitary foe. Civilians have been trapped in the middle in a city with an apocalyptic air.
The journalists have spent 10 days in Khartoum, Sudan, on a rare trip to the front line of Africa’s biggest war.
Sudanese military forces recaptured the presidential palace early Friday in the battle-scarred capital, Khartoum, signaling a potential turning point in Sudan’s devastating civil war, now approaching its third year.
Videos and photos showed soldiers standing triumphantly at the entrance of the devastated palace, which overlooks the Nile River, after days of heavy fighting with the Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., the powerful paramilitary group that the army has been battling.
“We’re inside!” shouted an unidentified officer as cheering soldiers swarmed around him in one video posted Friday morning. “We’re in the Republican Palace!”
Sudan’s information minister and its military spokesman confirmed that the palace, an emblem of power in Sudan for two centuries, was back in government control. “Today the flag is raised, the palace is back, and the journey continues until victory is complete,” the minister, Khalid Ali al-Aiser, wrote on social media.
Retaking the palace was a major symbolic victory for Sudan’s army, which lost most of Khartoum to the R.S.F. in the early days of the war in April 2023, leaving its forces confined to a handful of embattled bases scattered across the vast city.
Nile
River
OMDURMAN
NORTH
KHARTOUM
Sudanese Armed
Forces (S.A.F.)
control as
of March 19
Presidential
palace
KHARTOUM
Rapid Support
Forces (R.S.F.)
White Nile
River
SUDAN
Khartoum
Nile
River
OMDURMAN
NORTH
KHARTOUM
Sudanese Armed
Forces (S.A.F.)
control as of
March 19
Presidential
palace
KHARTOUM
White Nile
River
Rapid Support
Forces (R.S.F.)
SUDAN
Khartoum
Note: Areas of control are as of March 19.
Source: Thomas van Linge
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