Sudanese army retakes capital Khartoum, says military chief

Sudan's army chief, General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, has declared Khartoum is "free" and his forces have retaken the capital after nearly two years of fighting.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been battling to oust its rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from a last foothold in the capital, although the war looks far from over.

In videos posted on social media, General Burhan is seen walking with his troops through the presidential palace in downtown Khartoum which was seized last week​​​​​​, an important symbolic advance.

"Khartoum is now free. It's over. Khartoum is free. Free. Free," General Burhan can be heard telling his soldiers.

The Sudanese armed forces said they had also seized a key RSF base in Khartoum and surrounded the capital's airport earlier on Wednesday, after consolidating their gains in the capital in recent days.

The army released drone footage of people walking across a dam which it claimed showed RSF forces retreating across the Nile.

The war erupted in April 2023 as the country was attempting a democratic transition. The conflict has split the massive country into rival zones of control.

While the army has made recent gains in central Sudan - retaking parts of the capital and other territory - the RSF remains deeply embedded in western Sudan.

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

The fighting has also caused what the UN calls the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

Famine and disease is blighting several areas, and the latest UN data suggests that 12.8 million people have been displaced, more than a fifth of Sudan's population. Five million of those displaced are children, according to UNICEF.

Military control of the airport in Khartoum, could now allow aid groups to fly more supplies into the country.

The army and RSF had at one point been in a fragile partnership together, jointly staging a coup in 2021 and also fought on the same side for years in the western state of Darfur.

But the groups fell out, and war erupted, when the military and the RSF turned against each other in a struggle for power.

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