Sudan’s military recaptures more government buildings from paramilitary group

Sudan’s military consolidated its grip on the capital, retaking more key government buildings a day after it gained control of the Republican Palace from a paramilitary group.

Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese military, said troops expelled the Rapid Support Forces from the headquarters of the National Intelligence Service and Corinthia Hotel in central Khartoum.

The military also retook the headquarters of the Central Bank of Sudan and other government and educational buildings in the area, Brig Gen Abdullah said.

Hundreds of RSF fighters were killed while trying to flee the capital city, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF.

The military on Friday retook the Republican Palace, the prewar seat of the government, in a major symbolic victory for the Sudanese military in its nearly two years of war against the RSF.

A drone attack on the palace Friday believed to have been launched by the RSF killed two journalists and a driver with Sudanese state television, according to the ministry of information.

Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Ibrahim, from the military’s media office, was also killed in the attack, the military said.

At the start of the war in April 2023, the RSF took over multiple government and military buildings in the capital including the Republican Palace, the headquarters of the state television and the besieged military’s headquarters, known as the General Command.

It also occupied people’s houses and turned it into bases for their attacks against troops.

In recent months, the military took the lead in the fighting.

It reclaimed much of Khartoum and its sister cities of Omdurman and Khartoum North, along with other cities elsewhere in the country.

In late January, troops lifted the RSF siege on the General Command, paving the way to retake the palace less than two months later.

The military is now likely to try to retake the Khartoum International Airport, only some 1.5 miles southeast of the palace, which has been held by the RSF since the start of the war.

Videos posted on social media Saturday purportedly showed soldiers on a road leading to the airport.

The war wrecked the capital, and other urban cities across the country.

It has killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country.

Other estimates suggest a far higher death toll.

The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.