Does military’s recapture of Khartoum mark a crossroads in Sudan’s conflict?

Analysis Does military’s recapture of Khartoum mark a crossroads in Sudan’s conflict?
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Sudan's military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, center, is greeted by troops as he arrives at the Republican Palace, recently recaptured from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, in Khartoum on March 26, 2025. (AP Photo)
Analysis Does military’s recapture of Khartoum mark a crossroads in Sudan’s conflict?
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Local residents cheer surround a convoy of soldiers as they arrive on March 27, 2025, in Al Kalalah district, 40 km south of Khartoum, which was recently recaptured by Sudan's army from the RSF paramilitary group. (AP Photo)
Analysis Does military’s recapture of Khartoum mark a crossroads in Sudan’s conflict?
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Sudanese citizens celebrate in Port Sudan on March 27, 2025, upon hearing the news that Sudan's army has deepened its control over Khartoum from RSF paramilitaries. (Reuters)
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Updated 02 May 2025
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Does military’s recapture of Khartoum mark a crossroads in Sudan’s conflict?

Does military’s recapture of Khartoum mark a crossroads in Sudan’s conflict?
  • General Al-Burhan’s forces control key sites in the capital, including the airport, which will be critical for humanitarian relief
  • Despite the losses in Khartoum, his foes have entrenched themselves in Darfur, maintaining a power base and foreign backing

LONDON: Sudan’s de-facto military ruler visited the presidential palace in Khartoum on Wednesday after his forces recaptured the city from a rival paramilitary group. Whether the development will prove to be a decisive moment in the conflict that has devastated the country since April 2023 remains to be seen.

Khartoum, once one of East Africa’s fastest-growing capitals, is today a ghost city, its residents displaced and its basic infrastructure in ruins. “It’s heartbreaking to see people dying in huge numbers from hunger in Sudan, once the breadbasket of East Africa,” Mathilde Vu, a Sudan-based aid worker with the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Arab News.




Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

According to Vu, the humanitarian response in the capital depends heavily on grassroots efforts. “Local responders are the one hope of Sudan,” she said. “They operate without logos, without any resources, and yet they’ve organized evacuations, run soup kitchens, offered psychosocial support, even repaired water systems.”




People wait to collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (AFP)

But these efforts are fragile and increasingly under threat, with at least 10 local responders killed during intensified fighting in March. “If one local responder dies, one kitchen is closed. And with that, entire families are left without food,” Vu said.

The Sudanese Armed Forces have in recent days consolidated control not just over the presidential palace, but also the central bank, the airport and the strategic Al-Yarmouk weapons manufacturing complex, having dislodged its adversary, the Rapid Support Forces.




Damage is seen at Khartoum international airport a day after it was recaptured from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on March 27, 2025. (AP Photo)

These are symbolic gains. But whether they will translate into stability or reconstruction is far from certain.

Abiol Lual Deng, a South Sudanese-American political scientist, cautions against assuming that the SAF’s return to the city signals a new era. “This is a city where people died from starvation and infectious disease — not just bullets,” she told Arab News.

“The fighting disrupted every part of urban life. Shops closed, fuel ran out, water became contaminated, and no one could move because of snipers and shelling.”




People walk past shuttered shops down a street in a southern neighbourhood of Khartoum on March 29, 2025, after the military recaptured the capital. (AFP)

She added: “Now that SAF has retaken key areas like the airport, we might see some humanitarian aid trickling back in, especially for the wounded and those in critical need. But the scale of need is just unfathomable. Two-thirds of Sudan’s population requires assistance. This is not something a few aid flights can solve.”

The destruction of Khartoum’s civilian infrastructure has been especially devastating because of the city’s role in the national economy. Once home to the country’s key financial institutions, markets, and trade corridors, Khartoum’s paralysis has sent ripples across Sudan and beyond.

The SAF’s ability to maintain control over the capital will depend not just on military gains, but also on whether it can stabilize these essential services.




Sudanese army members walk next to wreckage of destroyed planes wreckage at Khartoum Airport on March 27, 2025. (REUTERS)

Dallia Abdelmoniem, a Sudanese analyst with deep experience in civil society networks, points out that many displaced civilians are already planning to return — despite the lack of security guarantees.

“For many Sudanese, they don’t have the privilege to wait for full reconstruction,” she told Arab News. “They’re returning to neighborhoods where there’s no running water, no banks, no healthcare. Civil society will be forced to fill the vacuum again.”

Yet any suggestion that the war is winding down would be premature. Having withdrawn from Khartoum, the RSF has entrenched itself in Darfur and other regions. There, it continues to function as a parallel authority, with reports of its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, making diplomatic overtures to regional leaders.




Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Daglo (L) on a visit to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on January 4, 2024. (Handout photo via AFP

“The RSF has already established a parallel government,” said Deng. “They’re not disappearing. They have a base of power in Darfur, strong cross-border supply networks, and deep-rooted ethnic and regional dynamics backing them.”

She reminds observers that the RSF originated as a paramilitary force — evolving from the Janjaweed militias once backed by the central government — and has long been used to destabilize peripheries under the guise of counterinsurgency.

Abdelmoniem warns the SAF’s territorial gains may embolden it to pursue an outright military solution to the conflict. “Negotiations appear dead in the water,” she said. “SAF has political momentum now, and it would be naive to think that pushing the RSF into Darfur means an end to hostilities. We’re more likely to see Darfur become a sustained war zone again.”




An image grab taken from a handout video posted on the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) page on X, on July 28, 2023 shows its commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo addressing RSF fighters at an undisclosed location. (AFP)

Even as the geography of the conflict shifts, the consequences remain grim for civilians. In Darfur’s Al-Fasher and Zamzam camp, where thousands are trapped in siege-like conditions, Vu describes haunting scenes of families trying to escape on donkeys under the cover of night — leaving everything behind.

“They’re too scared to take cars during the day because they could be arrested or attacked,” she said.

Access to these areas remains severely limited. “We must be realistic about the fact that both sides have obstructed aid,” said Deng. “But RSF-controlled areas are among the worst-hit. Famine conditions are spreading, and aid blockades are used as a weapon of war.”

Still, she says, international humanitarian organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres continue to engage with non-state actors.

“Groups like the ICRC or MSF operate based on neutrality, and the RSF knows that,” said Deng. “Sometimes access is possible — but it requires pressure, not just on the ground, but also on the states backing these groups with arms and logistics.”




Sudanese wait outside a hospital for medical check-up in Tokar in the Red Sea State in eastern Sudan on October 10, 2024. (AFP)




Patients are pictured in one of the rooms of the Saudi hospital in Khartoum's twin-city Omdurman on March 20, 2025 as most hospitals and schools no longer function in the Sudanese capital and its environs due to the ongoing war which broke out in April 2023. (AFP)

That pressure, so far, has been uneven. The international response to Sudan’s war has been widely criticized as inadequate, both in scale and in coherence. Vu underlines that while the world debates political solutions, people are starving.

“Humanitarian access must prevail, whether there is peace or not,” she said. “Aid should have no side.”

Meanwhile, SAF’s internal cohesion remains uncertain. Analysts have long warned of leadership fractures within the army and its allied militias. Deng points out that the SAF and RSF were not always rivals — they once operated in concert, often carrying out atrocities in Darfur and the south together.




Sudan's Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (C-R) and paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (C L) once worked together alongside civilian leaders, even signing on Dec. 5, 2022, a deal aimed at ending a deep crisis that hit Sudan. (AFP)

“Now they’ve turned those tactics on each other,” she said. “That a power vacuum would emerge inside the SAF is no surprise. Everyone wants to be seen as the legitimate inheritor of military authority.”

In the background looms a larger question: How much of Sudan’s war is about Sudan at all? “We’re entering an era where global geopolitics is less about rules and more about resources,” said Deng.

“Sudan manufactures its own weapons. It’s geographically pivotal. And it’s being drawn into the gravitational pull of multiple regional powers. That changes how this war plays out — and how it ends.”




Burned documents are left on shelves inside a charred room at the Republican Palace, following its recapture by Sudan's army from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, in Khartoum, on March 24, 2025. (AP Photo)




Vandalized vintage luxury cars are parked in a hangar at the Republican Palace on March 24, 2025. (AP Photo)

For now, Khartoum remains in limbo. The SAF may have reclaimed the city, but it has not yet won the peace.

Displaced civilians are navigating shattered neighborhoods. Aid might be trickling in, but it is far from sufficient. Across the country, war rages on in new theatres. And a political resolution, however desirable, feels no closer.

“The international community must increase pressure on the warring parties and their backers,” said Vu. “Without strong engagement, especially from countries with influence over SAF and RSF, aid will remain politicized and civilians will keep paying the price.”
 

 


UN chief at Baghdad summit repeats rejection of Israeli-US aid plan for Gaza

UN chief at Baghdad summit repeats rejection of Israeli-US aid plan for Gaza
Updated 14 sec ago
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UN chief at Baghdad summit repeats rejection of Israeli-US aid plan for Gaza

UN chief at Baghdad summit repeats rejection of Israeli-US aid plan for Gaza
  • Gaza dominates agenda at Arab League meet as Antonio Guterres hails major forum next month as ‘important opportunity’
  • UN secretary-general also draws attention to events in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Libya

NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeated his rejection of a joint Israeli-US plan to bypass his organization in delivering aid to Gaza.

The UN chief’s comments came two days after satellite imagery revealed construction of new aid distribution centers in the enclave.

Guterres was speaking on Saturday at the annual Arab League summit in Baghdad, where the situation in Gaza dominated the agenda.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani said in his opening speech at the summit: “This genocide (in Gaza) has reached a level of ugliness unparalleled in all conflicts in history.”

As well as Gaza, the UN chief also drew attention to events in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.

He opened his speech by praising Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit and said that the UN hopes to “further strengthen” its partnership with the league.

“I am alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more,” he added, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the unimpeded flow of aid to the enclave.

Since March, Israel has implemented a total blockade of humanitarian aid entering Gaza in a bid to step up pressure on Hamas.

The latest Israeli plan to allow third parties to deliver aid aims to ensure deliveries reach the right people, the country’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, has said.

However, Guterres has repeatedly rejected the Israeli plan.

“I emphasize that the UN will not participate in any so-called aid operation that does not adhere to international law and the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” he said on Saturday.

The UN chief also highlighted the situation in the West Bank, where settler annexation and the building of illegal settlements has escalated.

“Annexation is illegal. Settlements are illegal,” he said.

Guterres highlighted next month’s high-level conference on the Palestinian issue, co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and France, as an “important opportunity.”

He said: “The world, the region — and, most of all, the people of Palestine and Israel — cannot afford to watch the two-state solution disappear before our eyes.”

On Lebanon, Guterres praised the “stated commitment by Lebanese officials to ensure a state monopoly over weapons.”

It comes as the UN’s peacekeeping force in the country, UNIFIL, works in tandem with the Lebanese army to seize Hezbollah arms caches in the country’s south.

In neighboring Syria, a political process “based on the key principles of Security Council resolution 2254” will “safeguard the rights and participation of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity and religion, and ensure their protection,” Guterres said.

The UN chief also welcomed the Houthi-US ceasefire mediated by Oman that was reached earlier this month.

“The trajectory of violence must cease as we work for a negotiated Yemeni-led political settlement,” he said.

Guterres said he was “very grateful” to the Arab League and African Union for “the excellent coordination meeting that we managed to have yesterday” on the situation in Sudan.

“In Libya, we are actively engaging with national and international actors to end the confrontation between armed groups, to preserve the independence of key oversight institutions, to address the obstacles preventing national elections, and set the course for long-term stability and prosperity — in line with the Libyan people’s needs and aspirations,” he said.

The Arab League is a “vital partner” in these efforts, he added.

“Despite the enormous challenges, let us draw lessons and hope from here in Baghdad. Working in unity and solidarity, we can help resolve conflicts and build a future of peace and prosperity,” Guterres said.

“That is the shared goal of the Arab League and the UN, and I look forward to continue to deepen our partnership together.”


Syrian government forces raid Daesh hideouts in Aleppo

Syrian government forces raid Daesh hideouts in Aleppo
Updated 17 May 2025
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Syrian government forces raid Daesh hideouts in Aleppo

Syrian government forces raid Daesh hideouts in Aleppo
  • The security forces seized weapons, bombs and uniforms with the security forces’ insignia
  • A security source said the raids had targeted sleeper cells in four locations

DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces raided Daesh hideouts in Aleppo on Saturday, killing at least one militant and arresting others, the Interior Ministry said, the first time such an operation has been announced under the country’s new Islamist rulers.

A member of the security forces was also killed, the statement issued by Interior Ministry spokesperson said. The security forces seized weapons, bombs and uniforms with the security forces’ insignia.

A security source said the raids had targeted sleeper cells in four locations. One Daesh militant had blown himself up, and another had been killed in clashes, the source said.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who once led a branch of Al-Qaeda, has long been an adversary of Daesh, and battled the group’s self-declared caliphate during the Syrian war.

US President Donald Trump met Sharaa earlier this week, and praised him as an “attractive guy with a very strong past” after the encounter in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Trump also declared the United States would lift sanctions, a major US policy shift that should help revive the shattered economy and marked a major boost for Sharaa.

Sharaa seized power in Damascus in December after veteran leader Bashar Assad was ousted. Sharaa cut ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016.

Daesh controlled swathes of Syria and Iraq at the height of its power, before being beaten out of the territory by enemies including a US-led military alliance.


Hamas: new Gaza talks ‘without any preconditions’ underway in Doha

Hamas: new Gaza talks ‘without any preconditions’ underway in Doha
Updated 50 min 9 sec ago
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Hamas: new Gaza talks ‘without any preconditions’ underway in Doha

Hamas: new Gaza talks ‘without any preconditions’ underway in Doha
  • “This round of negotiations began without any preconditions from either side,” said Al-Nunu
  • “Hamas will present its viewpoint on all issues, especially ending the war”

DOHA: A senior Hamas official said a new round of indirect negotiations with Israel aimed at ending the war in Gaza started in Doha “without any preconditions” on Saturday.

The announcement came as Israel’s military launched a new Gaza offensive, saying it was part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip” aimed at defeating the Palestinian militant group.

“This round of negotiations began without any preconditions from either side, and the negotiations are open to discussing all issues,” said senior Hamas official Taher Al-Nunu.

“Hamas will present its viewpoint on all issues, especially ending the war, (Israel’s) withdrawal and prisoner exchange.”

Prior rounds of negotiations have failed to secure a breakthrough on ending the war, and a two-month ceasefire between the sides fell apart when Israel resumed its operations in Gaza on March 18.

The renewed fighting came after Israel imposed a total aid blockade on the territory that UN agencies warn has created critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz credited the intensified campaign with bringing Hamas back to the table.

“With the opening of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ in Gaza, which is being led by the IDF (Israeli army) command with great force, the Hamas delegation in Doha announced a return to negotiations on a hostage deal — in contrast to the recalcitrant position they had taken up until that moment,” he said.

Negotiations for the release of the captives held in Gaza have been ongoing, with the latest talks taking place in Doha.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week he had instructed a negotiating team to head to the Qatari capital.


Erdogan sees end in sight for US sanctions on Turkish defense sector

Erdogan sees end in sight for US sanctions on Turkish defense sector
Updated 17 May 2025
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Erdogan sees end in sight for US sanctions on Turkish defense sector

Erdogan sees end in sight for US sanctions on Turkish defense sector
  • “We can easily say that there is a softening in CAATSA,,” he told reporters
  • The move soured ties between the two NATO member countries

ISTANBUL: Turkiye has seen an easing of US sanctions on its defense sector since Donald Trump became president, with steps toward ending the measure advancing quickly, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

“We can easily say that there is a softening in CAATSA,,” he told reporters while returning from a European summit, referring to US sanctions legislation.

In 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on Ankara over its purchase of an S-400 Russian surface-to-air missile defense system under a 2017 law known as CAATSA, which aims to limit Russia’s military influence.

The move soured ties between the two NATO member countries.

It also booted Turkiye out of its F-35 program, with Washington saying the presence of the S-400 would allow the Russians to collect information on the stealth jet’s capabilities.

Erdogan said Turkiye had raised the sanctions issue with Trump and his newly-appointed envoy to Ankara, Tom Barrack

“With my friend Trump taking office, we have achieved a more open, more constructive and more sincere communication on these issues,” Erdogan added, saying Turkiye valued “every positive step in this direction.”

“I believe we will overcome the CAATSA process much faster. As two great NATO allies, there should be no restrictions or obstacles in the field of defense between us,” he said.

Turkiye’s partnership with the United States was “of vital importance for the establishment of stability in our region and the world” he said.

In March, Erdogan spoke to Trump about the need to finalize a deal to let Turkiye buy US F-16 fighter planes and be readmitted to the development program for F-35 warplanes.

Turkiye has been seeking to modernize its airforce, and has been seeking to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoons which are built by a four-nation consortium grouping Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy.


Israel says killed Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon

Israel says killed Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon
Updated 17 May 2025
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Israel says killed Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon

Israel says killed Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon
  • One person was killed in an Israeli “drone strike” on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Tyre district
  • The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “struck and eliminated... a commander“

BEIRUT: Israel’s military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander on Saturday in south Lebanon, where authorities reported one dead in the fourth Israeli strike within days despite a November ceasefire.

Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli “drone strike” on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Tyre district.

An AFP correspondent saw the charred wreckage of a vehicle in Abu Al-Aswad, an area around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “struck and eliminated... a commander” involved in “the re-establishment of Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” in south Lebanon.

Israel has continued to launch strikes on its neighbor despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah militants including two months of full-blown war.

The Israeli military said that “the rebuilding of terrorist infrastructure and related activity constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

Earlier this week, the Israeli military said three separate strikes in south Lebanon targeted Hezbollah operatives.

Under the ceasefire, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.

Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”

The Lebanese army has been deploying in the area as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.

At an Arab summit in Baghdad on Saturday, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denounced “daily Israeli violations” of Lebanese sovereignty and “the ongoing Israeli occupation of positions” in the south.

He said Lebanon was working to “fully implement” a United Nations Security Council resolution that formed the basis of the ceasefire.

The resolution says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

Salam again urged international pressure “to oblige Israel to stop its attacks and immediately and fully withdraw from all Lebanese territory.”