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. [Getty]
Troops of Sudan’s regular army advanced on Thursday to within 500 metres (yards) of the presidential palace, seized by paramilitaries nearly two years ago, a military source said on Thursday.
During their advance in central Khartoum, troops “destroyed a Rapid Support Forces convoy of 30 vehicles attempting to withdraw southward,” the source told news agency AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The fighting around the presidential palace comes amid a major offensive by the army to retake areas of greater Khartoum they lost to the RSF in the early stages of the war which broke out in April 2023.
On Monday, soldiers advancing from the south converged with troops already in the city centre, putting further pressure on the paramilitaries.
According to AFP, explosions were and gunfire across the city as the fighting intensified.
The battle for power between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has claimed tens of thousands of lives and uprooted more than 12 million people from their homes.
In greater Khartoum alone, at least 3.5 million people — more than half of the pre-war population — have fled their homes.
The conflict has split the country in two, with the army controlling the north and east while the RSF holds sway over much of the west and south.
In recent weeks, the army has retaken Khartoum North — across the Blue Nile from the capital — as well as East Nile district to its east.
In Khartoum and its sister city of Omdurman across the White Nile, the RSF still holds several positions in the south.
