Sudan army breaks RSF's siege on Khartoum HQ, reclaims oil refinery

Regaining access to its headquarters would be the army's biggest victory since it regained the capital's twin city of Omdurman, on the Nile's west bank, nearly a year ago. (Photo/Reuters)

The Sudanese army has said it broke a siege of its headquarters in Khartoum by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which had encircled it since war broke out in April 2023.

In a statement on Friday, the army said troops in Bahri (Khartoum North) and Omdurman across the Nile River had "merged with our forces stationed at the General Command of the Armed Forces".

A military source confirmed that "the arrival of the forces from Bahri completely lifted the siege on the command".

The army added that it had "expelled" the RSF from the Jaili oil refinery north of the capital, the country's largest, which the paramilitary had claimed control of since the start of the war.

The RSF in a statement rejected the Sudanese army's claims it had advanced as "propaganda" designed to boost morale, and accused the army of spreading falsehoods through doctored videos.

Fighting around the refinery set the sprawling complex ablaze, satellite data analysed by The Associated Press on Saturday showed, sending thick, black polluted smoke over the country's capital.

The refinery is owned by Sudan's government and the state-run China National Petroleum Corp.,

Since the outbreak of the war with Sudan's army in April 2023, the RSF had encircled both the Signal Corps in Khartoum North and the General Command of the Armed Forces, its headquarters just south across the Blue Nile river.

A military source had previously told AFP news agency the army was advancing closer to Khartoum North, following days of military operations aimed at dislodging the RSF from fortified positions in the city.

This comes around two weeks after the army reclaimed the Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, just south of Khartoum, securing a key crossroads between the capital and surrounding states.

Celebrations

Regaining access to its headquarters would be the army's biggest victory since it regained the capital's twin city of Omdurman, on the Nile's west bank, nearly a year ago.

The army and the RSF had appeared to be in a stalemate since the capture of Omdurman, with paramilitaries still in control of Khartoum North on the east bank.

They have regularly exchanged artillery fire across the river, with civilians reporting bombs and shrapnel often hitting homes.

The military source said Friday's advance will disable the RSF's capability for "counterattacks from Bahri," heralding the "complete collapse of the militia in Khartoum State."

In what is now the de facto capital on the Red Sea, dozens took to the streets of Port Sudan cheering the army's advance, chanting "one army, one people", AFP correspondents reported.

Eyewitnesses in Omdurman reported similar celebrations, with cars honking and waving Sudanese flags through the streets.

Khartoum and its surrounding state have been torn apart by the war, with 26,000 people killed between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report by The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Entire neighbourhoods have been emptied out and taken over by fighters as at least 3.6 million people fled the capital, according to United Nations figures.

Across the northeast African country, the war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and uprooted more than 12 million people in what the United Nations calls the world's largest internal displacement crisis.

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Source: TRT