Africa
Sudan’s military says it has retaken presidential palace from rebels
By
The Washington Post March 21, 2025
Victoria Bisset and Hafiz Harou
The Washington Post March 21, 2025
This grab from video shows smoke rising over Khartoum, Sudan on Thursday Sept. 26, 2024, after Sudan’s military started an operation to take areas of the capital from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (Rashed Ahmed/AP)
The Sudanese military said Friday that it has retaken the presidential palace — the seat of government in the capital, Khartoum — after almost two years of a brutal civil war that the United States says has killed more than 150,000 people and unleashed what the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) describes as the world’s largest and most devastating humanitarian crisis.
Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah, a spokesman for the Sudanese military, said in a video statement posted on social media that the army has “crushed” fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and retaken the Republican Palace, which he described as “a symbol of the sovereignty and dignity of the Sudanese nation,” as well as surrounding ministry buildings and the Arab market to the south.
Videos on social media showed Sudanese soldiers chanting inside the Republican Palace, which appeared to be partly in ruins. If confirmed, the seizure of the building, which was the last heavily guarded RSF bastion in the city, would amount to a symbolic victory for the military.
“Today the flag has been raised, the palace returned, and the journey continues until victory is complete,” Sudanese Information Minister Khaled al-Aiser wrote on X.
The RSF, in a statement on its social media account, said the battle for the palace has not ended yet, as “our brave forces are still in the vicinity of the area.” The rebel group said its forces have attacked members of the military inside the palace.
The recapture of the palace is unlikely to mean an immediate end to the war, as the RSF still controls territory in other parts of the country, including the western Darfur region.
But it is a significant development in a war that broke out in April 2023 amid a rivalry between Sudan’s military chief and de facto head of state, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the head of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is widely known as Hemedti.
Both sides have faced allegations of human rights abuses, which they deny. In January, the outgoing Biden administration imposed sanctions on Burhan, Sudan’s army chief and RSF head Hemedti.