Sudan’s army drives paramilitaries out of Omdurman

destroyed combat vehicles lying in khartoum’s sharg elnil area, which was recently liberated by the sudanese national army. (Reuters)
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  • Regular forces now control all of Khartoum state in biggest victory of two-year war

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s regular army has driven rival paramilitaries from Omdurman, part of the Sudanese capital, securing all of Khartoum state nearly two months after recapturing the capital’s center.
“Khartoum state is completely free of rebels,” military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said on Tuesday.

The army has been locked in a brutal conflict with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023. In its biggest victory of the war, the army recaptured central Khartoum in March, forcing the paramilitaries to retreat to Salha, south of Omdurman, and Ombada to the west.
The army attacked on Monday to push the paramilitaries out of both, and there were explosions from the clashes across the city. Control of Khartoum state cements army control over central Sudan, pushing the paramilitaries back toward their stronghold in the vast western region of Darfur.

The conflict has killed up to 150,000 people, displaced 13 million and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the center, north and east while the Rapid Support Forces control Darfur and the south.