Sudan's military says it has retaken Khartoum's Republican Palace, seat
of country's government
[March 21, 2025]
By SAMY MAGDY and JON GAMBRELL
CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s military said Friday it retook 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. However, it likely
doesn't mean 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
Friday. A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s epaulettes made
the announcement in the video, and confirmed the troops were inside the
compound.
The palace appeared to be partly in ruins, with soldiers’ steps
crunching broken tiles underneath their boots. Soldiers carrying assault
rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the
greatest!”
Khaled al-Aiser, Sudan’s information minister, 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.
Palace's fall a symbolic and strategic moment
The fall of the Republican Palace, a compound along the Nile River that
was the seat of government before the war erupted and is immortalized on
Sudanese banknotes and postage stamps, marks another battlefield gain
for Sudan’s military. It has made steady advances in recent months under
army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.
It means the rival Rapid Support Forces, under Gen. Mohammed Hamdan
Dagalo, have been mostly expelled from the capital, Khartoum, after
Sudan’s war began in April 2023. Sporadic gunfire could be heard
throughout the capital Friday, though it wasn't clear if it involved
fighting or was celebratory.
Brig. Gen. 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 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) southeast of
the palace, has been held by the RSF since the start of the war.
The RSF did not immediately acknowledge the loss, which likely won’t
stop the fighting as the paramilitary force and its allies still hold
territory elsewhere in Sudan.
Late Thursday, the RSF claimed it seized control of the Sudanese city of
al-Maliha, a strategic desert city in North Darfur near the borders of
Chad and Libya. Sudan’s military has acknowledged fighting around al-Maliha,
but has not said it lost the city.
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This satellite picture from Planet Labs PBC shows the Republican
Palace, center, in Khartoum, Sudan, March 15, 2025 (Planet Labs PBC
via AP)
Al-Maliha is around 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the city of
El Fasher, which remains held by the Sudanese military despite
near-daily strikes by the surrounding RSF.
The head of the U.N. children’s agency has said the conflict created
the world’s largest and 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.
The Republican Palace had been the seat of power during the British
colonization of Sudan. It also saw some of the first independent
Sudanese flags raised over the country in 1956. It also had been the
main office of Sudan’s president and other top officials.
The Sudanese military have long targeted the palace and its grounds,
shelling and firing on the compound.
Sudan has faced years of chaos and war
Sudan, a nation in northeastern Africa, has been unstable since a
popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocratic President
Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A short-lived transition to democracy was
derailed when Burhan and Dagalo led a military coup in 2021.
The RSF and Sudan’s military then began fighting each other in 2023.
Burhan’s forces, including Sudan’s military and allied militias,
have advanced against the RSF since the start of this year. They
retook a key refinery north of Khartoum. They then pushed in on RSF
positions around the capital itself. The fighting has led to an
increase in civilian casualties.
Al-Bashir faces charges at the International Criminal Court over
carrying out a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s in the western
Darfur region with the Janjaweed, the precursor to the RSF. Rights
groups and the U.N. 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. Before U.S. President Joe
Biden left office, the State Department declared the RSF are
committing genocide.
The military and the RSF have denied committing abuses.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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