Sudan army makes gains as battle for Khartoum intensifies

Omdurman: Sudanese army forces advancing on Khartoum converged on Monday with troops in the capital's centre, a military spokesman said, increasing pressure on rival paramilitaries and inching closer to retaking the city.

The latest push by the army, at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, comes after troops had broken prolonged sieges on key military sites after months of apparent stalemate in Khartoum.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdullah Ali said Armoured Corps troops advancing from the south captured a key hospital from the RSF, enabling them to unite with General Command forces already in the city centre.

A Sudanese military expert, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity for safety concerns, said that the latest army manoeuvre would cement its control over much of central Khartoum.

It would also increase pressure on RSF fighters near the presidential palace, with army forces now approaching them from both the south and the east, the expert said.

The war between the RSF and the army has escalated in recent months, with army forces seeking to reclaim territory lost to the RSF early in the conflict in the capital Khartoum and beyond.

The Armoured Corps last October broke out of a months-long paramilitary siege on its headquarters, and in January the army ended an almost two-year RSF siege of its General Command headquarters.

In Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, RSF shelling on Sunday killed six civilians and wounded 36 others, a doctor at Al-Nao hospital told AFP, also requesting anonymity for security reasons.

Two of the dead and half of those wounded were children, said the doctor.

The media office of the army-aligned Khartoum regional government said the bombardment struck residential areas in northern Omdurman, hitting civilians inside their homes and children playing on a football field.