Sudanese army recaptures Khartoum airport in battle against RSF

Dubai — The Sudanese army recaptured the Khartoum airport on Wednesday in a battle to oust the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from a last foothold in the capital, though the war looks far from over.

The army seized the presidential palace in the Khartoum city centre on Friday, an important symbolic advance after two years of a conflict that is splitting the massive country into rival zones of control.

On Wednesday, Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declared “Khartoum is free”. The army said it had gained control of the airport and 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.

A military sources said the army had encircled the airport, which is located in the city centre, and surrounding areas.

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.

The army later released drone footage of scores of people walking across a dam that it said showed RSF forces retreating across the Nile. Reuters was not able to confirm that the footage showed RSF forces and the RSF did not immediately comment on Wednesday’s military developments.

In an apparent sign of the army’s confidence in its hold over central Khartoum, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appeared in an Al Jazeera television news broadcast on Wednesday touring the captured presidential palace.

Recent army gains in central Sudan, retaking districts of the capital and other territory, come as the RSF has consolidated its control in the west, hardening battle lines and threatening to move the country towards a de facto partition.

The war, which erupted two years ago as the country was attempting a democratic transition, has caused what the UN 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 long-ruling 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.

Reuters