Middle East & Africa| Where to next?
Khartoum changes hands, heralding a new phase in Sudan’s civil war
The national army may now try to push into Darfur
Sudan's military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan greeted by troops as he arrives at the Republican Palace, recently recaptured from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, in Khartoum, Sudan.
Photograph: AP
It was not the heroic final stand their leader had perhaps envisioned. On March 15th Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo had called on his troops not to surrender or retreat. In the end they disobeyed. Within days of Mr Dagalo’s entreaties the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ceded control of the presidential palace in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). By March 26th the central bank and international airport were back in the hands of the SAF, Sudan’s national army. Columns of bedraggled fighters could be seen retreating west across the last Nile bridge still in the RSF’s hands as General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army chief and Sudan’s de facto president since a coup in 2019, returned to the capital for the first time in two years. Surrounded by cheering troops, he toured the palace and declared that at last Khartoum was “free”.