Sudan's army retakes presidential palace after fierce battle in central Khartoum

Landmark had been taken by rival RSF paramilitary group nearly two years ago

Sudanese army troops celebrate after regaining control of the presidential palace in central Khartoum on Friday. Reuters

Sudan's army and allied forces retook the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum on Friday, in a major and symbolically significant victory against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that had seized the Nile-side complex days after the war broke out two years ago.

The RSF issued a statement acknowledging it had lost control of the Republican Palace but insisted the battle was not yet over.

The latest victory by the army and allied volunteers adds a milestone to their offensive in the capital after significant battlefield gains in recent months in Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman – the three Nile-side cities that make up the capital's greater region.

The capital's only major facility that remains in RSF hands is its international airport, where snipers stationed on top of buildings nearby pose a major challenge to any bid to retake it.

The RSF continues to control parts of the three cities, where its fighters have long embedded themselves deep in residential areas, making army advances both costly and slow. It also remains in control of some dozen neighbourhoods in Omdurman and Khartoum.

Our forces today capped its battlefield successes in Khartoum by crushing Dagalo's terrorist militia in central Khartoum, the Araby market and the presidential palace

Sudanese army

The paramilitary force also controls most of the western Darfur region, its birthplace, and large swathes of Kordofan, to the south-west. Its foray into central Sudan south of the capital proved ill-advised, with the army and allied forces throwing them out of that region in late 2024.

While retaking the entire capital from the RSF would be a huge boost for the army, it could also signal the country's de facto partition, with the army and its allies in control of Khartoum, northern, central and eastern Sudan and the RSF holding sway in the vast, arid west.

A Sudanese soldier offers a prayer of thanks after the army retook the presidential palace, in the background, in Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP

The RSF tightened its control of the west on Thursday when it claimed to have seized Al Maliha, a strategic desert city in North Darfur near the borders of Chad and Libya. Sudan’s military has acknowledged fighting around Al Maliha but has not said it lost the city.

Al Maliha is around 200km north of El Fasher, a city still held by the Sudanese military despite daily attacks by the RSF whose fighters are besieging it. It's the only major city in Darfur not controlled by the RSF.

Shortly after the troops and volunteers seized the palace, a suicide drone hit the site, killing a three-man army media team led by a lieutenant colonel as well as three members of a Sudanese television crew, according to witnesses. They said there were more casualties, but they had no details. Authorities have acknowledged the death of the television crew but not the military media team.

The RSF said its fighters launched a "lightning military operation" that targeted troops and volunteers inside the palace complex, "killing 89 of them".

"The battle for the Republican Palace is not over yet and our valiant forces remain in its vicinity, fighting with courage and determination," it said.

Sudan's Army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, right, and Rapid Support Forces commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo. AFP

Friday's victory came less than a week after RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo posted a video online in which he vowed never to allow the army to retake the palace and threatened to launch a major offensive against it on March 17, the anniversary of the founding of the paramilitary force.

“In an immortal heroic epic, our forces today capped its battlefield successes in Khartoum by crushing Dagalo's terrorist militia in central Khartoum, the Araby market and the presidential palace – the Sudanese nation's symbol of sovereignty and dignity – as well as the ministries,” an army statement said.

“We gift our patient people of Sudan these victories and emphasise that we will continue to push on all battle fronts until victory is complete and every square inch of our country is purged from the defilement of the militia and its supporters,” it said.

A satellite picture of the presidential palace in Khartoum, taken on March 15. Photo: Planet Labs PBC via AP

Videos widely shared online showed jubilant army soldiers and volunteers cheering on the grounds of the presidential palace.

“Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete,” Sudan’s Information Minister, Khaled Al Aiser, said in a post on X.

The recapture of the palace followed days of intense fighting in central Khartoum around the palace and the Al Araby market – the city's largest retail market – as well as nearby government ministries.

The war between Gen Dagalo's RSF and the army, led by Sudan's de facto leader Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, broke out after months of tension between them over control of the vast and resource-rich nation.

The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands and displaced more than 12 million people. It has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, leaving about 26 million people – more than half the population – facing acute hunger. Pockets of famine have also surfaced across much of the Afro-Arab nation, with about eight million people deemed on the brink of famine, the UN estimates.