The military in Sudan announced on Saturday that it had taken control of several important structures in central Khartoum, including the central bank, from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after reclaiming the presidential palace.
“Our forces achieved further success last night, eliminating hundreds of militia members who tried to escape through pockets in central Khartoum,” army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement to AFP, listing the buildings recaptured, including the Central Bank.
Following this, the army and its allied groups established control over the presidential palace on Friday, prompting a retaliatory drone strike from the RSF that resulted in the deaths of three journalists and multiple army personnel.
According to military sources, RSF fighters had retreated to buildings in Al-Mogran, located just to the west of the palace, where banks and corporate headquarters are situated. The paramilitary forces had deployed snipers in the tall buildings of the district, which offer vantage points over both Omdurman across the Nile and the central ministries of Khartoum.
The ongoing fight for Khartoum’s government and financial centre could enhance the military’s dominance over the capital, providing a considerable edge in the country’s ongoing, devastating two-year conflict. Since April 2023, the military, led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been engaged in combat with the RSF, which is led by Burhan’s former deputy commander, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
This conflict has resulted in tens of thousands of fatalities, displaced over 12 million individuals, and triggered the largest hunger and displacement crises in the world.
It has also divided the country, with the army controlling the eastern and northern regions, while the RSF dominates nearly all of western Darfur and parts of the south.
