Sudanese army tightens grip on Rapid Support Forces at presidential palace

KHARTOUM, Sudan

The Sudanese army intensified its blockade of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) at the presidential palace in Khartoum on Monday after announcing that its forces at the general command headquarters united with its armored corps south of the capital for the first time since the war erupted in April 2023.

“Today, the armored forces joined the brave defenders at the General Command after clearing the Al-Shaab Teaching Hospital of RSF militia,” military spokesperson Nabil Abdullah said in a brief statement.

The advance allowed the army to seize all southern entry points into central Khartoum, positioning it to push eastward and southward to secure the capital fully while tightening the noose around RSF units still holding the presidential palace and its surroundings.

Since the war began, the RSF had imposed a strict siege on the armored corps—one of the army’s key military bases in Khartoum—blocking supply lines.

That dynamic shifted when the army launched offensive operations in the capital starting in September 2024.

With its latest gains in central Khartoum, the army is now encircling the RSF, which controls the presidential palace and government institutions downtown, from all directions.

The RSF has not issued a statement on the developments.

However, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, insisted in a video recording Saturday that his forces would neither abandon Khartoum nor relinquish the presidential palace, which they have held since the conflict’s onset.

Over the past few weeks, the territorial control of the RSF has been shrinking rapidly in favor of the Sudanese army across several states, including Khartoum, Al-Jazira, White Nile, North Kordofan, Sennar and Blue Nile.

In Khartoum state, which consists of three cities, the army now controls all of Bahri city in the north, most parts of Omdurman city in the west and 80% of central Khartoum city, which houses the Presidential Palace and the country’s main airport. The RSF, however, still maintains control over the eastern and southern parts of the city.

The army and RSF have been fighting a war since mid-April 2023 that has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.

International and UN calls for an end to the war are mounting, warning of an impending humanitarian catastrophe as millions face famine and death due to food shortages. The conflict has spread to 13 of Sudan’s 18 states.