Sudanese military said on Saturday that it has 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.
According to the army spokesman Nabil Abdallah, the military was continuing to pressure the Rapid Support Forces, RSF, throughout the city centre, giving a list of buildings recaptured including the Central Bank, state intelligence headquarters and the Sudan National Museum.
It was gathered that despite its advances in the capital, thr 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.
Sudan’s national institutions in Khartoum’s centre were reportedly overrun and looted by paramilitaries in the first weeks after fighting erupted in April 2023.
RSF fighters remain inside what remains of the airport, which has been heavily damaged during nearly two years of fighting.
The army and allied armed groups on Friday retook the presidential palace from the RSF, which retaliated with a drone strike that killed three members of a Sudanese TV crew and several army personnel.
According to the military the paramilitaries had used the palace to house their elite forces and stockpile ammunition.
The battle for Khartoum’s city centre could consolidate the military’s hold on the capital region but is unlikely to end the war.
With its advance on Friday, the army has taken the entire south side of the Blue Nile, which separates the capital from Khartoum North.
It has also secured the main road route across the White Nile from the city centre to Khartoum’s twin 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.
Sudan army advances in central Khartoum after retaking palace
