The local broadcaster in Sudan and international news agencies reported on Friday that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have taken control of the presidential palace in Khartoum.
Videos and photos posted on social media showed soldiers inside the devastated palace.
The Reuters news agency reported that intermittent gunfire could be heard in some central areas of the capital, citing witnesses.
'Flag is raised' says information minister
Sudan's information minister, Khaled al-Aiser, posted on social media platform X that the military had retaken the palace.
"Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete," he posted.
"Our forces destroyed the enemy's fighters and equipment, and seized large quantities of equipment and weapons," army spokesman, Nabil Abdallah, said in a statement broadcast on state television.
On Thursday it was reported that SAF troops had advanced within a few hundred meters of the palace — seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — almost two years ago.
Withdrawing the RSF column reportedly destroyed
AFP news agency reported, citing a military source, that SAF forces "destroyed a Rapid Support Forces convoy of 30 vehicles attempting to withdraw southward. "
The military has been making steady progress against RSF forces and says it has wrested back control of the capital, Khartoum.
Since April 2023, the conflict has pitted army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions more
The World Health Organization says at least 20,000 people have so far been killed in the war in Sudan, with other estimates putting the toll at as high as 150,000.
to UN figures, at least 10 million people in Sudan have been forced from their homes, making it the world's largest displacement crisis.
In August, a UN-backed assessment declared a famine in the Zamzam refugee camp in the western Darfur region which is largely controlled by the RSF paramilitary under commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
The government working with the official army is based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
