Khartoum quiet after Al Burhan declares Sudan's capital free of Rapid Support Forces

Small crowds greet troops and volunteers, while others are sceptical that Dagalo’s forces have retreated to Darfur

Women in Port Sudan celebrate the Sudanese army's recapture of the capital Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces. Reuters

Khartoum was quiet on Thursday after army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan declared the city free of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Wednesday was a day that saw troops and allied volunteers force the paramilitary group out of most of Sudan's capital, after they had occupied it for nearly two years.

But what comes next after the army and its allies regained Khartoum – and central Sudan before that – remains uncertain.

The RSF holds sway over most of the western Darfur region, its birthplace and stronghold, and parts of Kordofan to the south-west where it is allied with a powerful rebel group.

For the first time since the war broke out on April 15, 2023, there was no gunfire in the Sudanese capital, no deafening explosions, whistling sound of artillery shells and rockets or the ominous buzzing of drones and warplanes above the city.

Instead, there were scenes of small but jubilant celebrations on Wednesday and Thursday, with men, women and children leaving their homes to greet the troops and the volunteers. They waved Sudan’s flags and cheered while walking alongside the soldiers and volunteers.

A video clip shared online on Thursday purported to show Sudanese men in traditional white robes flying to Port Sudan from Qatar dancing in the aisle of the aircraft.

“May God protect and unite Sudan to overcome its enemies,” they chanted.

Local reporters visit a destroyed hall in the presidential palace in Khartoum after it was recaptured by Sudan's army from the Rapid Support Forces. AP

Sulaima Ishaq, a prominent women’s rights advocate who escaped the war and now lives with her family in White Nile state, described the RSF’s departure from Khartoum as “a defining moment in a war that may well end soon”.

“We are already thinking of returning home,” she said. “We just need to fix our house that suffered some damage in the fighting. Otherwise, I don’t see anything stopping us from going back.”

The quiet that dominated the capital on Thursday was a reprieve for its long-suffering residents. With a prewar population of about nine million, they have suffered physically and psychologically.

The RSF is blamed for widespread abuses of civilians in the capital, including looting and taking over homes and businesses, arbitrary arrests and detentions as well as sexual assault. The army stands accused of killing thousands of civilians in air strikes and shelling RSF positions in residential areas.

Volunteers fighting alongside the army and mostly drawn from notorious Islamist militias created by former leader Omar Al Bashir are also blamed for extrajudicial killings of suspected RSF collaborators or sympathisers.

Invariably, their victims hail from Darfur, whose civil war in the 2000s displaced three million people. Many of them have found refuge in the capital, living in shanty towns far from the centre.

A video still of Sudan's army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan surrounded by soldiers celebrating after retaking the presidential palace in Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces. AFP

Video clips that surfaced online over the past week from areas retaken by the army and its allied volunteers laid bare the extent of destruction in the capital.

They showed buildings in the heart of the capital, including the presidential palace and other landmarks, either completely destroyed, partially damaged or scarred by shelling.

Streets are strewn with debris and rubbish. Many of the locals who emerged from their homes to see the arriving soldiers were forlorn and wary.

The war has to date killed tens of thousands and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 25 million facing acute hunger, including many on the brink of famine.

The war has also displaced more than 12 million people, of whom about three million left the country.

But with the capital’s quiet and scenes of jubilation, however small, came the uncertainty over what is next for a country mired in deadly conflicts, political instability and economic crises since independence in 1956.

Gen Al Burhan has repeatedly rejected peace negotiations and vowed to fight on until the RSF surrenders or is defeated. Gen Mohamed Dagalo, the RSF commander, has threatened to march on Port Sudan, the temporary seat of the military-backed administration.

“There is no clear reading of the situation,” said Bahgah Khan, a Khartoum resident and political activist.

“There is so much frustration. We cannot be satisfied with any solutions forged by either side. If this war ends with an agreement between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, and without a shift to democratic rule, it will be no more than a delay of the next war.”

Sudanese army troops at the presidential palace in Khartoum. AP

Mohammed Lateef, a prominent Sudanese analyst, said many feel a “new war” is about to start, with the RSF likely to have pulled its fighters from the capital as part of preparation to fight in defence of Darfur.

“The decision to withdraw from the capital could not have been easy for the Rapid Support Forces,” he said.

“They have lost many of their field commanders, had to adapt to restricted supplies after the army cut off most of their supply routes from Darfur and they were stretched thin because of the vast territory they control.

“Perhaps they had no choice but to pull out and the army had no choice but to cement its control of the capital rather that spread its resources in pursuit of the withdrawing RSF fighters.

“There are too many questions; and war, by its nature, involves considerations and dynamics not easily understood by us.”

Fighters loyal to the Sudanese army patrol a market area in Khartoum. AFP

With no end to the war in sight, the conflict is continuing to claim lives and deepen the suffering of survivors.

The UN children's fund said on Wednesday that at least 825,000 children are trapped by fighting around Al Fasher – the army-held capital of North Darfur state that has been besieged by the RSF since May last year. Unicef said they were under threat of violence or starvation.

On Monday, an air strike suspected to have been carried out by the army targeted an outdoor market not far from El Fasher. Scores of civilians were killed. Videos shared online of the aftermath showed the bodies of victims.

The RSF, the large Umma Party and an independent monitor group of lawyers blamed the air strike on the army, which has yet to comment.

Al Shafie Ahmed contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda.