Sudan army retakes Khartoum airport from paramilitaries: Military source

The Sudanese army on Wednesday recaptured Khartoum airport from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, “fully securing it”, a military source told the media.

Just south of central Khartoum, troops also “surrounded the strategic Jebel Awliya area”, the last large RSF stronghold in the Khartoum area, from the north, south and east, he added, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to brief the media.

The military, at war with the RSF since April 2023, launched this week a campaign to push the paramilitary forces out of central Khartoum, after recapturing the presidential palace in a key victory on Friday.

RSF fighters had been stationed inside the airport, just east of central Khartoum’s government and business district, since the war began.

The army on Wednesday also secured both sides of Manshiya bridge which crosses the Blue Nile in Khartoum, leaving the Jebel Awliya bridge just south of the capital as the only crossing out of the area still under RSF control.

Across the city, eyewitnesses and activists reported this week that RSF fighters were retreating southwards from neighbourhoods they previously controlled, ostensibly towards Jebel Awliya.

The Jebel Awliya bridge, which crosses the White Nile, is the only remaining crossing to the country’s west for the RSF’s Khartoum fighters, linking to their strongholds in the western Darfur region.

In nearly two years, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.