In Sudan's Devastated Capital, a Climatic Battle Comes Into View
Video footage showed Sudanese troops about 500 yards east of the palace compound, which overlooks the river Nile, and is controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., the army's powerful paramilitary rival.
Capturing the palace would be a major symbolic victory for Sudan's army, which lost most of Khartoum to the R.S.F. in the early days of the war in April 2023. It would also significantly boost the military's six-month-old drive to push the paramilitaries out of the city entirely.
Early on Thursday, the army launched a blistering ambush on an R.S.F. convoy south of the palace, video footage showed. For the rest of the day, gunfire and explosions could be heard across the capital.
Nile
River
OMDURMAN
NORTH
KHARTOUM
Sudanese Armed
Forces (S.A.F.)
Presidential
palace
KHARTOUM
Rapid Support
Forces (R.S.F.)
White Nile
River
SUDAN
Khartoum
Nile
River
OMDURMAN
NORTH
KHARTOUM
Sudanese Armed
Forces (S.A.F.)
Presidential
palace
KHARTOUM
White Nile
River
Rapid Support
Forces (R.S.F.)
SUDAN
Khartoum
Note: Areas of control are as of March 19.
Source: Thomas van Linge
The R.S.F. leader, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, has vowed to stand his ground. 'Do not think that we will retreat from the palace,' he said last week in a video address from an undisclosed location.
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