Civilians in Khartoum celebrating the army’s recent territorial gains from the presidential palace to the airport in the capital
March 26 — The Sudanese army has recaptured the Airport in the capital, Khartoum, from the paramilitary RSF, marking its latest territorial gain in the brutal two-year civil war.
Gen Mohamed Abdel Rahman al-Bilawi said troops had fully secured it after encircling it since Tuesday and might be able to clear the rest of the RSF fighters by the end of day.
The army also said Wednesday it had gained control of Tiba al-Hassanab camp south of the capital, which it described as the RSF’s last base in central Sudan and last stronghold in Khartoum State.
The army has been moving swiftly since recapturing the presidential palace on Friday, and civilians have been celebrating in the streets as it advances.
The RSF had controlled most of the capital since the war began in April 2023. Nationwide, hundreds of thousands have been killed, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
Earlier, an army spokesperson said that troops have seized Manshiya Bridge, the last RSF-held bridge, along with a military camp in the group’s southern stronghold.
Witnesses said the RSF had focused its troops in southern Khartoum, apparently to secure their withdrawal from the city via bridges to the neighbouring city of Omdurman.
But the war is not yet over as the RSF still holds almost all the Darfur region in western Sudan, where earlier this week, eyewitnesses said dozens of civilians were killed when the air force bombed a market.
The war, which erupted two years ago as the country was attempting a democratic transition, has caused what the U.N. calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with famine in several areas as well as outbreaks of disease.
It has driven 12.5 million people from their homes, many of them seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.
The army and RSF had at one point been in a fragile partnership together, jointly staging a coup in 2021 that derailed the transition from the Islamist rule of Omar al-Bashir, a longtime autocrat who was ousted in 2019.
They had also fought on the same side for years in the western state of Darfur under Bashir’s government.
The RSF, under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, developed from Darfur’s janjaweed militias and Bashir developed the group as a counterweight to the army, led by career officer Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
After they seized power together in 2021, the two sides clashed over an internationally backed plan aimed at launching a new transition with civilian parties that would require them both to cede powers.
Major points of dispute included a timetable for the RSF to integrate into the regular armed forces, the chain of command between army and RSF leaders, and the question of civilian oversight.
When fighting broke out, Sudan’s army had better resources including air power. However, the RSF was more deeply embedded in neighbourhoods across Khartoum and was able to hold much of the capital in an initial, devastating burst of warfare.
The RSF also made rapid advances to gain control of its main stronghold of Darfur and over El Gezira state, south of Khartoum, a big farming area.
With the army now re-establishing its position in the capital, it is making a new push to cement its control in the centre of Sudan.
