Extraordinary scenes of jubilant soldiers waving flags at Khartoum’s presidential palace have suggested this could be a turning point in Sudan’s bitter two-year civil war. But RSF militia are fighting back and the future remains unpredictable.

Here is a reminder of why this matters and where this could all lead:

• In the early hours of Friday, the Sudanese army seized back control of the presidential palace from the RSF for the first time since the conflict erupted in April 2023
• It is a hugely symbolic victory, allowing them to reclaim the seat of power in central Khartoum, including the presidential complex
• RSF leaders claimed the battle for the palace was far from over – vowing its forces would “continue to fight”
• Friday’s recapture of the palace by the army is an “emotional” moment for many people living in a state of siege in Khartoum, an activist has told the BBC
• Meanwhile, a UN official tells the BBC it is too “early” to tell if these latest developments will make it easier for aid agencies to reach those desperately in need – in what remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

To much fanfare last month, RSF leaders and their allies announced plans to form a parallel government to rule Sudan.

The fact they held their summit in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and were welcomed with open arms by President William Ruto outraged Sudanese officials, who retaliated by halting imports on all Kenyan goods including tea.

No rival government yet exists as such – at present it is merely a charter outlining what that eventual government could look like.

But the timing was no accident.

The RSF suffered some of its most humiliating defeats in Khartoum in the weeks before the Nairobi announcement, and multiple peace talks have failed in recent months.

Beyond the capital, the army had also won near total control of the crucial state of Gezira.

In other words the momentum has shifted, however temporarily, in favour of the army.

As news comes of the army latest success in clawing back the presidential palace, the RSF has been quick to say it’s fighting back and claims to have launched a counter-attack.

A UN official has said it is too “early” to tell if this latest development will make it easier for aid agencies to get access to people who need the most help, in what has been described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has prevented a lot of help from getting through.

“We are watching the evolution of the situation and we hope the outcome will be positive for the people,” said UN’s Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Sala.

Aid agencies have struggled to provide the food and basic necessities that many need they need throughout this war.

“We have been in this conflict for two years, and it’s been unpredictable in nature,” Ms Nkweta-Sala told the BBC’s World At One radio programme.

She called for the opposing sides to respect international humanitarian law.

A photographer for the AFP news agency, Ebrahim Hamid, was taking pictures on Thursday in Omdurman, which is just over the Nile form Khartoum.

He was capturing some of the destruction that has been caused over the past months of fighting.

A hospital director showed the photographer the damage wrought by bullets and shelling on her institution:

And Hamid saw how buildings have been reduced to rubble:

Many people fled Khartoum and Omdurman when the fighting broke out nearly two years’ ago. At some point they may return to find much of what they knew has gone.

Alarabiya television has broadcast pictures from inside the presidential palace, showing more images of celebrating soldiers.

It is not clear if these were taken before or after an RSF drone strike, which the paramilitary force said claimed dozens of lives.

As conflicts rage from Gaza to Ukraine, the devastating human cost of Sudan’s war is being overlooked, aid agencies warn. Here are some key facts:

• Some 12 million Sudanese people have fled their homes since war broke out – that’s equivalent to Belgium or Tunisia’s entire population

• Famine has taken hold and starvation is widespread, the UN says, external, with over half the country experiencing “high levels of acute food insecurity”
• Estimates vary, but it’s said that at least 150,000 people have been killed by the fighting
• Mass sexual violence has been widely documented as a weapon of war – children as young as one have been raped by armed men, and sexual slavery is rife, external
• Few hospitals remain functioning after two years of war – some have been deliberately targeted by fighters, external, which is by definition a war crime according to international law, external
• The RSF has denied evidence that it is committing a genocide in Darfur, including the murder of thousands of civilians, external, and the rape of non-Arab women as a means of “ethnic cleansing”.

More images have been coming through from earlier today of troops celebrating at the presidential palace. The soldiers have been sharing them on social media:

In the lead up to the assault on the palace, the BBC has access to the soldiers preparing for the battle:

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Port Sudan

A military spokesman has been killed in an RSF drone attack on the presidential palace, the army says.

Lt Col Hassan Ibrahim was killed alongside Capt Emad Eldein Hassan, a junior colleague, the army told the BBC. Capt Hassan was once of the military’s well-known social media influencers.

Three crew members of Sudan TV were also killed while reporting about the soldiers’ advance to the palace. They were a programme editor, a cameraman and a driver.

The drone attack targeted army troops celebrating inside the Republican Palace, hours after the military recaptured the symbolic building from the RSF.

The RSF spokesperson has said the battle for the palace is far from over.

“Our valiant forces are still present in the vicinity of the area,” reads the statement that was issued on Telegram.

The paramilitary force says it has carried out a “lightning military operation” inside the palace , killing at least 89 “enemy elements”.

The RSF also says they destroyed various military vehicles and asserts that they will “continue to fight”.

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Port Sudan

This is one of the most significant advances the Sudanese Armed Forces have made in the civil war so far.

It is a symbolic victory, allowing them to reclaim the seat of power in central Khartoum, symbolised by the presidential complex.

It is also a strategic victory.

After clearing outer districts of Greater Khartoum, the army has now retaken key locations in the city centre, pushing the RSF fighters further away from sites like government buildings and the military’s headquarters.

This means the RSF has in effect lost its control of the capital, even though its fighters are still present in the city.

It is not clear though how far the frontline has moved.

This has changed the direction and dynamics of the war.

Bloody fighting is expected to continue as the army tries to corner remaining fighters, who still occupy swathes of territory to the south of the palace.

They also control parts of the nearby airport.

People in the capital are still reeling from what they faced under the RSF soldiers.

But, residents feel relieved and safe now that the territory has been taken back by the army.

With some saying they would finally be able to sleep at night.

Sudan, a predominantly Muslim nation in north-east Africa, collapsedinto civil war nearly two years ago when the military and a paramilitary groupknown as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fell out.

Thetwo had been allies, coming to power in a coup six months earlier, but disagreedover an internationally backed plan to movetowards civilian rule.

The crux of their disagreement was to do with the integrationof the paramilitary group into the army, which is when RSF fighters went on theoffensive capturing much of the capital – and going on to control much of thewestern region of Darfur.

The RSF became a powerful player in Sudan under the leadershipof Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted as president in 2019. It had grown out of the “Janjaweed” militias linked to genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

The military’s capture of the presidential palace may be significant,but it is by no means the end of the brutalpower struggle that has brought so much suffering to the people of Sudan.

Both sides have been condemnedfor war crimes, famine has been declared in several areas and more than 12million people have been forced from their homes.

In an X post, external, Sudan’s diplomats in Tokyo described the presidential palace as a “living symbol of Sudanese sovereignty and a source of national pride”.

The picture they shared (above) of an intact palace taken before the conflict began in 2023, contrasts sharply with the images of a ruined building that we’re seeing from the soldiers’ social media videos.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify

BBC Verify has checked videoand images appearing on social media showing Sudanese army forces around the presidential palace in Khartoum.

We’ve matched the features ofthe buildings and grounds to images available on Google and visible on satelliteimagery and checked that these videos have not appeared before. They showsoldiers celebrating and announcing today’s date.

Celebratory gunfire can alsobe heard.

The footage also revealsextensive damage to the outside of the palace, as well as destruction insideone of the buildings.

The RSF paramilitary force has launched a drone attack on the presidential palace killing at least three people, reports say.

The three are crew members of the state-owned Sudan TV, pan-Arab channels Saud Al Arabiya TV and its sister station Al Hadath reported.

Sudan TV is yet to comment on the attack which happened a few hours after the army recaptured the palace from the RSF.

It is not clear if the army officers, who have been celebrating inside the palace, were caught up in the drone attack.

A Sudanese activist has told the BBC’s Newsday programme that the army’s recapture of the presidential palace is a “very important” and “emotional” moment for many people on the ground in the capital, Khartoum.

“Everybody was waiting for the military to take over the palace,” said Duaa Tariq.

She said no food or basic necessities had been coming in or out of Khartoum for about four months while the opposing sides were fighting.

And although there is excitement, there is still an underlying fear.

“We are not sure what will happen next. We are just going to have to sit and wait,” she said.

Yussuf Abdullahi
BBC Monitoring

The army says it is pursuing fleeing RSF soldiers in parts of central Khartoum and also preparing to enter Tuti island in Khartoum.

The island, which is located where the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers merge, is still under RSF control.

An army official told pan-Arab news channel Al Hadath that the RSF had a “limited period to surrender”.

The RSF did not immediately comment on the retaking of the palace and the army’s advances in Khartoum.

Elsewhere in Sudan, the paramilitary group said late on Thursday that it had seized a key base from the army in North Darfur, a region in the west of the country.

Some Sudanese have welcomed the recapturing of the palace by the army.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a 55-year-old Khartoum resident, told the Reuters news agency that the “liberation of the palace is the best news I have heard since the start of the war”.

“It means the start of the army controlling the rest of Khartoum.

“We want to be safe again and live without fear or hunger,” he added.

The two-year civil war has caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

The taking of the presidential palace and – if it happens – the recapture of the entire capital by the army would be a significant moment, but it is not the end of the two-year conflict.

The RSF paramilitary force still controls large parts of the country, including much of the western Darfur region which has seen some of the deadliest violence over the past two years.

Many posts on social media are showing jubilant soldiers waving their guns in the air, cheering and kneeling to pray at the entrance to the presidential palace.

Here are some stills from footage that’s been recorded:

Besides the palace, the Sudan’s army said it had also taken control of ministries and other key buildings in central Khartoum.

“Our forces completely destroyed the enemy’s fighters and equipment, and seized large quantities of equipment and weapons,” army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a broadcast on state television.

Abdallah vowed the army would “continue to progress on all fronts until victory is complete and every inch of our country is purged of the militia and its supporters”.