Sudan’s army has launched a major offensive in the capital, Khartoum, to regain ground held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), military sources have told Al Jazeera.
The army carried out air raids on Thursday against RSF positions in the capital and north of Khartoum in its biggest such assault in months.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reported from Khartoum that the army had taken control of three major bridges, two of which connect Omdurman to the capital.
According to Morgan, the forces have been marching towards the presidential palace, where intense fighting has been reported. According to accounts, the army targeted various RSF military positions, while the Sudanese Air Force flew over Khartoum.
At least four people were killed and 14 wounded during artillery shelling on Thursday morning by the RSF, which targeted residential neighbourhoods in the Karari Governorate, north of Omdurman, according to Khartoum State Health Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim.
Morgan, among the roar of artillery and fighter jets overhead, stated that the assault had been “in the works for months”.
Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo broke out in a conflict that has so far displaced more than 10 million people – about 8.1 million people inside Sudan and about two million forced to flee the country, according to UN data.