Sudanese Army Recaptures Presidential Palace in Khartoum From Rival RSF

The fall of the Republican Palace—which was the seat of government before the war broke out—appears to mark a significant victory for the army in the civil war.

Screen grab of a video of Sudanese army soldiers celebrating inside the presidential palace in Khartoum, Sudan, on March 21, 2025. Social Media via Reuters

The Sudanese army on March 21 said it had recaptured the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last stronghold of the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital.

A civil war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has pitted the army against the RSF, which is led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The fall of the Republican Palace—which was the seat of government before the war broke out—marks a significant victory for the army, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, which has made significant advances in recent months and now appears to have expelled the RSF from Khartoum.

The Sudanese army, in a post on social media platform X on Friday morning, referring to Hemedti and RSF, said: “The mercenary leader of the terrorist militia failed to fulfill his promise to retake Jebel Moya [mountain range], which he made last October, and he has once again failed to fulfill his pledge to hold onto the Republican Palace and the central Khartoum area less than 72 hours after his speech. ... Khartoum is retaken.”

Social media videos showing Sudanese army soldiers inside the palace give the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, which was Friday.

The RSF—which still controls large swaths of territory in western Sudan, including Darfur province—has not acknowledged the loss of the palace.

‘Pivotal Moment’

Mariel Müller, Deutsche Welle’s East Africa correspondent, described the fall of the Republican Palace on X as “a huge victory for the Sudanese army and a pivotal moment in the conflict.”

Last month, Burhan said if the army recaptured Khartoum, it would create a new “wartime government.”

“We can call it a caretaker government, a wartime government,“ he said. ”It’s a government that will help us complete what remains of our military objectives, which is freeing Sudan from these rebels.”

The civil war began when the RSF openly challenged the army after years of working closely together.

The RSF had supported the army when it ousted the country’s longtime leader, Omar al-Bashir, in 2019.

The RSF took the upper hand in the initial fighting, forced the army out of Khartoum, and besieged its main headquarters.

But since the beginning of 2025, the army has made considerable advances, capturing the city of Wad Madani, southeast of Khartoum, and moving into the capital.

The army, which had remained in control in the north and east of the country, has made considerable gains in central Sudan.

The army’s recent gains appear to have been a combination of the swelling of its ranks from the support of allied militias and the addition of new Chinese fighter jets.

‘Dawn of Victory’

In another post on X on Friday, the army said: “In the last ten days of Ramadan, destinies change, and whoever endures the night’s fighting will witness the dawn of victory.

“The enemy buried in the palace that night will never rise again, and the palace we entered with the blood of heroes will only bring forth the ‘light of the state,’ and it will never be defiled by the darkness of the militias.

“Victory to the Sudanese armed forces on earth and in the heavens.”

Ramadan is due to end on March 30.

The army is supported by Egypt, while the RSF has been supported by Russia in the past. The United Arab Emirates has persistently denied claims it had also armed the RSF.

On March 11, after it was reported the RSF planned to create its own “parallel” government, the European Union issued a statement saying it was committed to the “unity and territorial integrity of Sudan and the sovereignty of the Sudanese people.”

The Sudanese civil war has killed an estimated 28,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.

The United Nations said some families have had to resort to eating grass to survive famine in parts of the country.

Sudan was once the biggest country in Africa. Still, separatists in the south—which is largely Christian and animist and ethnically non-Arab—fought a long war against the government in Khartoum.

In 2011, a referendum was held, and after an overwhelming vote in favor of independence, South Sudan was created as a separate country.

But rival tribes in South Sudan—the Nuer and Dinka—have fought for control, and earlier this month, the United States ordered its non-emergency government personnel to leave the country after fighting broke out again.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.