SUDAN’S military said yesterday that it has retaken the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting.

The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, represents a major symbolic victory for Sudan’s military against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

However, it’s unlikely to be the end of the war as the RSF holds territory in Sudan’s western Darfur region and elsewhere.

Social media videos showed its soldiers inside giving the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month, which corresponds to yesterday. 

A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s epaulettes made the announcement in the video and confirmed that the troops were inside the compound.

Soldiers carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the greatest!”

Sudanese Information Minister Khaled al-Aiser said the military had retaken the palace in a post on the social platform X.

“Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete,” he wrote.

The fall of the Republican Palace, a compound along the Nile River that was the seat of government before the war, marks an important battlefield gain for Sudan’s military. 

The steady advances made in recent months under army chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan means that the RSF, under General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been mostly expelled from the capital, Khartoum, after Sudan’s war began in April 2023. 

Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese military, described its troops as holding the palace, surrounding ministry buildings and the Arab Market to the south of the palace. 

Khartoum International Airport, only some 1.5 miles south-east of the palace, has been held by the RSF since the start of the war.

The RSF did not immediately acknowledge the loss of the palace.

The head of the United Nations children’s agency says that the conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

The war 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.

Rights groups and the UN accuse the RSF and allied Arab militias of again attacking ethnic African groups in this war.

Since the war began, both the Sudanese military and the RSF have faced allegations of human rights abuses. 

The military and the RSF have denied committing abuses.