SAF retakes Khartoum
SAF fighters routed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces from the palace late last week. Dagalo’s paramilitary occupied the palace at the start of the war
The head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, entered the country’s very symbolic presidential palace on Wednesday. It was his first time back since April 2023, when the civil war broke out. “Khartoum is now free,” he declared to the cheering band of soldiers around him.
SAF fighters routed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from the palace late last week. Dagalo’s paramilitary occupied the palace at the start of the war. This week, SAF also retook control of Khartoum’s main international airport, overran the biggest RSF base in the capital, and pushed the paramilitaries out of the Yarmouk factory – Sudan’s largest arms factory.
The SAF declared itself to be in full control of the capital on Thursday even though some RSF fighters remain in pockets of Omdurman, one of the three cities that make up the capital. Many Khartoum residents took to the streets to welcome SAF, following two years under RSF which is notorious for atrocities, looting and occupation of civilian homes.
The Sudan war is now likely to centre around the Darfur region in the west of the country, which the RSF almost completely controls. That’s unless the belligerents see the dramatic changes on the front that have happened since late February as a sign to embrace peace talks.
What an educational read.