Sudan's military says it has retaken the last area of the capital held by rival para­mil­itary forces

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s military said it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last bastion in the capital of rival paramilitary forces, after nearly two years of fighting.

Social media videos showed its soldiers inside giving the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, which was Friday.

The palace appeared to be in ruins in part, with soldiers’ steps crunching broken tiles underneath their boots. Soldiers carrying assault rifles an rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the greatest!”

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 expelled from the capital of Khartoum after Sudan’s war began in April 2023.

The RSF did not immediately acknowledge the loss, which likely won’t stop fighting in the war as the group and its allies still hold territory elsewhere in Sudan. 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.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.