Sudanese army chief returns to Khartoum for first time in two years of war

Sudan’s army says it had recaptured Khartoum’s international airport and the military chief flew back to the capital for the first time in nearly two years of war.

The development brings the military closer to regaining full control of Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.

Footage put out by the military showed army chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan landing at Khartoum airport, kissing the ground and raising his fist to troops as he emerged from the helicopter on to the tarmac.

“Khartoum is now free. It’s over. Khartoum is free,” Gen Burhan is heard telling cheering troops, according to video footage aired by Al Jazeera television.

The RSF is still believed to hold scattered positions in Khartoum, and the government had not yet declared full victory in the city, but Gen Burhan’s return capped a series of gains by his forces in the capital and marked a major symbolic landmark in the war.

He and his military-led government had to flee Khartoum, moving to the Red Sea coastal city of Port Sudan, soon after the war erupted in April 2023.

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, Presidential Palace and other neighbourhoods as the fighting spread around the country.

Seizing the capital does not 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.

“This is a pivotal and decisive moment in the history of Sudan,” information minister Khalid Aleiser, spokesman of the military-controlled government, said. “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 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 to be far higher.

Meanwhile, aid groups said at least 54 people were killed in a military air strike on a market in the country’s western region.

The strike on Monday on the village of Tora caused a huge fire, according to Adam Rejal, a spokesman for the General Co-ordination, a local group helping displaced people in Darfur.

More than half of the dead were women, according to a list of casualties provided by Mr Rejal. At least 23 people were wounded and seven were missing, the list showed.

He said the strike was “a crime against humanity and a clear violation of all international and humanitarian laws and conventions”.

Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, a spokesman for the Sudanese military, said civilians were not targeted, adding the allegations were “incorrect” and were “raised whenever our forces exercise their constitutional and legal right to deal with hostile targets”.