Bombay Durpun - Sudan's army chief visits HQ after recapture from paramilitaries

"Our forces are in their best condition," Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told army commanders at the reclaimed headquarters, which are close to the city centre and airport.

The army's recapture of the General Command building is its biggest victory in the capital since reclaiming Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city on the Nile's west bank, nearly a year ago.

In a statement on Friday, the army said it had merged troops stationed in Khartoum North (Bahri) and Omdurman with forces at the headquarters.

Since war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began, RSF had encircled both the Signal Corps in Khartoum North and the General Command of the Armed Forces just south across the Blue Nile river.

On Friday it said it had broken the siege on Signal Corps, and later said it had also retaken its headquarters.

Since the early days of the war, when the RSF quickly spread through the streets of Khartoum, the military had to supply its forces inside the headquarters via airdrops.

Burhan was himself trapped inside for four months, before emerging in August 2023 and fleeing to the coastal city of Port Sudan.

The recapture of the headquarters follows other gains for the army.

Two weeks ago, troops regained control of Wad Madani, just south of Khartoum, securing a key crossroads between the capital and surrounding states.

The war in Sudan has unleased a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and, according to the United Nations, more than 12 million uprooted.

Famine has been declared in parts of Sudan but the risk is spreading for millions more people, a UN-backed assessment said last month.

Late last year, then United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said people are forced to eat grass and peanut shells to survive in parts of the country.

N.Sabharwal--BD