(Reuters) -Sudan’s army is close to taking control of the Presidential Palace in Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, state TV reported on Thursday, in a significant milestone in a two-year-old conflict that threatens to fracture the country.
The RSF quickly took the palace and most of the capital at the outbreak of war in April 2023, but the Sudanese Armed Forces have in recent months staged a comeback and inched towards the palace along the River Nile.
The RSF, which earlier this year began establishing a parallel government, maintains control of parts of Khartoum and neighbouring Omdurman, as well as western Sudan, where it is fighting to take control of the army’s last stronghold in Darfur, al-Fashir.
The taking of the capital could hasten the army’s full takeover of central Sudan, and harden the east-west territorial division of the country between the two forces.
Both sides have vowed to continue fighting for the remainder of the country, and no efforts at peace talks have materialised.
The war erupted amid a power struggle between Sudan’s army and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.
WORLD’S LARGEST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
The conflict has led to what the U.N. calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, causing famine in several locations and disease across the country. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, while the RSF has also been charged with genocide. Both forces deny the charges.
The fight for the Presidential Palace has raged over the past several weeks, with the RSF fighting fiercely to maintain control, including via snipers placed around surrounding downtown buildings. Its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, instructed troops earlier this week not to give up the palace.
Late on Wednesday into Thursday morning, explosions could be heard from airstrikes and drone attacks by the army targeting central Khartoum, witnesses and military sources told Reuters. The army has long maintained the advantage of air power over the RSF, though the paramilitary group has shown evidence of increased drone capabilities recently.
On the Telegram messenger app, the RSF said its forces were making advances towards the Army General Command, also in central Khartoum, and eyewitnesses said the force was attacking from southern Khartoum.
The army’s advance in central Sudan since late last year has been welcomed by many people, who had been displaced by the RSF, which has been accused of widespread looting and arbitrary killings, and of occupying homes and neighbourhoods.
The RSF denies the charges and says individual perpetrators will be brought to justice.
Hundreds of thousands of people have returned to their homes in Central Sudan, though late on Wednesday activists in Omdurman warned that some soldiers have engaged in robbery. The military has routinely denied such allegations.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir and Jana Choukeir; Editing by Tom Hogue, Michael Perry and Sharon Singleton)
