On the event date, May 20, 2025, Sudan's military said it had taken full control of the Greater Khartoum region, including the capital, after a long battle against remnants of the Rapid Support Forces in the west and south of the city. Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah, a military spokesman, said the army had retaken Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North, also known as Bahri, and declared the state free of rebels.
The announcement marked another battlefield gain for the army in a war that has already transformed the country. Fighting broke out on April 15, 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare in Khartoum and other areas. Since then, the war has killed at least 24,000 people, although the true number is likely much higher, and driven about 13 million people from their homes, including 4 million who crossed into neighboring countries.
The capture of Greater Khartoum matters because the capital region has been one of the war's main symbols. It is where power was contested, where the state appeared to fracture and where civilians endured repeated displacement. The army's claim also suggests that fighting in the region is shifting from major urban battles to cleanup operations against isolated RSF pockets, though the military has not suggested that the war is close to an end. Large parts of the country, especially in the west, remain unstable.
Earlier on Tuesday, Abdullah said troops battled RSF fighters in the western and southern areas of Omdurman as part of a large-scale operation to clear their pockets there. That detail suggests the army's claim rested on fighting still unfolding on the city's edges rather than a formal peace settlement. The practical question is not only who flies the flag over the ministries but whether roads, hospitals and supply lines can function again.
The wider humanitarian picture is bleak. Sudan has been pushed into famine in parts of the country, and the war has been marked by atrocities that include mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, especially in Darfur, according to the UN and rights groups. The AP report placed the Khartoum announcement against that backdrop, making clear that military progress in one region does not equal national recovery. The country's political center may be back under army control, but the war's social and humanitarian damage is still spreading.
For residents of Khartoum and its sister cities, the army's statement may mean some return of state authority, but it does not guarantee safety, services or a real political settlement. Even with the capital under military control, Sudan remains divided, displaced and deeply scarred by a conflict that has now lasted more than two years.
The army's claim does not mean Sudan has found peace. RSF pockets remain in other parts of Omdurman, and the war's larger geography still stretches beyond the capital. But the announcement does show that the military is trying to convert battlefield gains into a narrative of restored state control, even while famine, displacement and other front lines continue elsewhere.
