DUBAI (Reuters) – The Sudanese army is encircling Khartoum airport and surrounding areas, two military sources told Reuters on Wednesday, another key development in a two-year-old conflict between the army and a rival armed group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The army seized control of the presidential palace in downtown Khartoum on Friday, marking a major gain in a war that threatens to partition the country. The army had long been on the back foot but has recently made gains and has retaken territory from the RSF in the centre of the country.
The RSF has mainly stationed its forces in southern Khartoum to secure their withdrawal from the capital via bridges to Omdurman, witnesses told Reuters.
The U.N. calls the situation in Sudan the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with famine in several locations and disease across the country of 50 million people.
The war erupted two years ago as the country was planning a transition to democratic rule.
The army and RSF had joined forces after ousting Omar al-Bashir from power in 2019 and later to oust civilian leadership.
But they had long been at odds, as Bashir developed Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and the RSF, which has its roots in Darfur’s janjaweed militias, as a counterweight to the army, led by career officer Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdulaziz; Writing by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Toby Chopra and Frances Kerry)
