According to military sources, Sudanese troops have recaptured Khartoum Airport from “full protection” from the Paramilitary Quick Support Forces (RSF).
Soldiers also surrounded the area surrounding the airport in Sudan’s capital on Wednesday. This is a significant development in the two-year-old conflict between the military and rival RSF.
Military sources have requested anonymity, as the unit south of central Khartoum, “enclosing the strategic Jebel Aurya region,” as its force south of central Khartoum, has not been given the authority to briefly explain the media.
The Army also secures both sides of the Mansya Bridge across the Blue Nile in Khartoum and is still only out of the region under RSF control, Jebel Aurya Bridge, just south of the capital.
In the war with the RSF from April 2023, it launched a campaign to drive paramilitaries out of central Hartzm after recaptured the Presidential Palace in a key victory on Friday.
RSF fighters have been stationed in an airport just east of the Central Khartoum government and business district since the war began.
Citywide, witnesses and activists reported that RSF fighters had retreated south from their previously controlled neighbourhoods, and on the surface, headed towards Jebel Aurya.
Witnesses said the RSF had deployed troops primarily in southern Khartoum and secured a withdrawal from the capital to the adjacent Omdurman city via bridges.
“Substantial profits”
“These are a huge profits from the Sudanese forces over the past few hours,” said Aljiba Morgan, who reported from Khartoum on Wednesday.
“The airport was one of the first locations the RSF controlled on the first day of the conflict, split into two,” she said, saying it was under government control and some under RSF control.
“With the Army’s advances over the past few hours, the Army has been able to take full control of the airport, including the civilian side. They have also managed to gain control of several residential areas around the airport.”
Morgan added that RSF “has put together a lot of fights.”
Elbasil Idris, an independent Sudanese analyst and activist, told Al Jazeera:
At Khartoum, I watched videos of many residents and prisoners who were under RSF-controlled territory yesterday.
“This news (about the Army taking over the airport) is very welcome to many Sudan who lost their homes in the capital two years ago. This victory happened with the collapse of the RSF,” Idris added.
In almost two years, the war killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million, creating the world’s largest hunger and refuge.
(Source: Al Jazeera)