Around two years after the beginning of the civil war in Sudan, the military announced the expulsion of the RSF militia from the capital Khartum. However, an end to the bloody conflict is not in sight.
Almost two years after the beginning of the civil war in Sudan, the military has recaptured the capital of Khartum according to the government. “Khartum is liberated,” said head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan surrounded by cheering soldiers in a television speech transferred from the presidential palace. “It is done.” An army representative said the last fighters of the paramilitary militia “Rapid Support Forces” (RSF) in the Khartum region would flee over the White Nile.
The military had started an offensive to displace the militia from the capital in January. Last Friday, the government troops took the Presidential Palace, which the RSF had held in April 2023 since the beginning of the civil war in Sudan. On Saturday, the army also recaptured the central bank, the secret service center and the National Museum. As a result, the Sudanese army claimed to be the airport in the capital. The troops had “fully secured the airport in the east of the city,” said a military representative of the AFP news agency.
Eyewitnesses and activists reported that the RSF fighters had withdrawn from the Chartum Center to the south in the past few days. The government troops also managed to secure both sides of an important bridge in the east of the capital. The militia remains only a bridge in the south of the capital for the retreat to the areas you controlled in the western region of Darfur.
Humanitarian disaster
The RSF under the leadership of former Vice President Mohamed Hamdan Daglo had rebelled against military rulers Al-Burhan in April 2023. The militia brought large areas, including the center of the capital. Al-Burhan's government retired to the coastal city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
According to the United Nations, the power struggle in the country with around 46 million inhabitants triggered the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe. According to the UN, 12.9 million people have been sold, almost 25 million suffer from acute hunger according to the UN information. That is about half of the population. There are no official number of victims – estimates assume 60,000 to 150,000 fatalities due to direct violence as well as from hunger and illness as a result of the conflict. Both the army and the RSF militia are accused of war crimes.
An soon end of the civil war in the country in the northeast of Africa is not in sight. The RSF militia continues to hold significant areas in the west of the country and tries to build a counter government in the areas it dominated. According to experts and diplomats, she receives support from the United Arab Emirates about the area of the neighboring country Chad. Both countries deny this.
UN condemned air raid
According to the UN, hundreds of civilians were killed on an air raid on RSF area in Nord-Darfur on Monday. The “New York Times” reported that satellite images confirmed Sudanese groups that the army bombed a market. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for the perpetrators to be punished.
In the war, civilians were killed, mutilated and abused almost every day, according to Türk. Civil objects are often the goal of attacks. Apparently it is about war crimes.
