Sudanese army takes control of airport, forcing RSF out of central Khartoum
Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrived by plane in Sudan's capital Khartoum after his troops recaptured the airport on Wednesday from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Reuters reported on Wednesday that RSF forces had mostly withdrawn from the capital, with the army deploying throughout several neighbourhoods, in what is one of the most significant developments of the two-year war between the army and the RSF.
Last Friday, Sudan's army took full control of the country's presidential palace in Khartoum, two years after it was seized by the paramilitary RSF.
After closing in on the building on the Blue Nile in recent days, the army-aligned government announced its capture on Friday.
On Wednesday, Al Jazeera aired footage showing Burhan inside the presidential palace where he declared that "Khartoum is free".
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“Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete,” Khaled al-Aiser, Sudan’s information minister, wrote on X when the palace was captured.
The RSF seized the palace complex and large swathes of the capital in April 2023, when its war with Sudan's army began.
Both sides have been accused of carrying out war crimes.
In recent months, the civilian death toll in Sudan surged as fighting intensified, with artillery shelling, air strikes and drone attacks pounding civilian areas.
In February, the United Nations human rights office, OHCHR, reported that at least 275 people had been killed between 31 January and 5 February, representing a three-fold increase from the previous week.
An SAF attack on Monday on the busy Tur'rah market, located 80km north of el-Fasher, left over 100 dead, according to Emergency Lawyers, a group of lawyers who monitor the war in Sudan.
Last month, the RSF killed more than 400 people in a three-day attack in the White Nile state.
Some 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed since April 2023.
Humanitarian crisis
Since then, 12.5 million Sudanese have been displaced from their homes, according to the UN.
The conflict-stricken country has seen countless displaced families seeking care, and the collapsing medical infrastructure has been unable to accommodate demand, with the violence having outstripped limited resources and two-thirds of all main hospitals out of service.
Sudan’s healthcare system is approaching a breaking point, as three or four patients are sharing single beds, Islamic Relief revealed earlier this month.
Overwhelmed healthcare workers in eastern Sudan described dire conditions, with patients either turned away or dying on the floor, the aid group said.
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