The News
Sudan’s military claimed Friday that it had seized back control of the presidential palace in the capital of Khartoum from the rival Rapid Support Forces, in a major turning point for the country’s brutal civil war.
“Today the flag is raised, the palace is back, and the journey continues until victory is complete,” Sudan’s information minister wrote on X.
The army appears to be on the cusp of reclaiming Khartoum from the RSF, which seized the city shortly after war broke out in April 2023. The situation remains fluid, however: The paramilitary group has said it remains in the vicinity of the palace.
The takeover comes as the war appears to be shifting in favor of government forces, which have recently recaptured significant territory in central Sudan. The RSF still controls much of western Sudan, however, including large swathes of the Darfur region.
The United Nations has described Sudan’s civil war as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster: Last year UNICEF declared famine in a Darfur refugee camp, its first such declaration in more than seven years, while more than 12.5 million people have fled their homes. Both sides stand accused of human rights abuses. “We can’t take any more of this war,” one Khartoum resident told The New York Times.
SIGNALS
Gulf nations see opportunity in Sudan conflict
“What started as a power feud between [two generals] has exploded into a much wider conflict fueled by a bewildering array of foreign powers,” The New York Times wrote. This month, Sudan accused the UAE in the International Court of Justice of supporting the RSF and being complicit in genocide. The UAE and Saudi Arabia see the war “as a chance to cement their hegemonic status in the Middle East,” Foreign Policy argued, and want influence in the oil-rich region bridging Africa and the Middle East. Beijing has so far steered clear of picking sides, but Chinese companies whose billion dollar-oil and gas projects in Sudan have been stalled are invested in the war’s outcome.
Sudan’s war could converge with escalating tensions in South Sudan
Sudan’s conflict is fomenting tensions in neighboring South Sudan, which is not long out of a civil war itself. “It has prevented the export of about two-thirds of South Sudan’s oil — the petrostate’s economic lifeline,” The Economist wrote. “The SAF and RSF could seek to capitalize on the resumption of civil war in South Sudan,” the Institute for the Study of War noted: The RSF is rumored to be close with South Sudan’s president, while the SAF could use its ties with northern militias to resist RSF efforts to use the country “as a rear support.”