Sudan’s Sovereign Council declares Khartoum free after expelling RSF

The Sudan’s Sovereign Council on Wednesday declared  Khartoum free after expelling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from the capital. 

The Sudanese army has in recent weeks extended its military operations, successfully recapturing the presidential palace and the most recent, retaking the airport in Khartoum from the RSF. 

According to multiple reports from Khartoum residents, the RSF fighters were replaced by the army across the city centre on Wednesday, marking a major milestone for the national army in the fight that has split the country since it began two years ago. 

The war broke out when the military and the RSF turned against each other in a struggle for power. 

Their battles around Khartoum left the RSF in control of the airport, the Presidential Palace and other neighbourhoods, as the fighting spread around the country. 

Seizing the capital doesn’t end the conflict, as the RSF still controls parts of the western Darfur region and other areas. 

Earlier in the day, the military announced it had recaptured the RSF’s last major stronghold in Khartoum, the Teiba al-Hasnab camp. There was no immediate RSF comment. 

“This is a pivotal and decisive moment in the history of Sudan,” Information Minister Khalid Aleiser, spokesman of the military-controlled government, declared on social media. “Khartoum is free, as it should be.”

Military control of the airport, along with calm in Khartoum, could allow aid groups to fly more supplies into the country, where the fighting has driven some 14 million people from their homes and pushed some areas into famine.

At least 28,000 people have been killed, though the number is likely far higher.