CAIRO (AP) — The war in Sudan appears to be reaching a critical juncture after nearly two years of fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people, driven millions from their homes and spread famine.
In recent months, the military has been making steady advances against its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, and it says it has wrested back control of the capital of Khartoum, including the iconic Republican Palace, traditionally the seat of the country's president and government. A politician associated with the RSF acknowledged the loss, though the RSF later said its troops were still in the area and fighting.
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Sudan army soldiers celebrate after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
The Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, is seen after it was taken over by Sudan's army Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers celebrate after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
The Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, is seen after it was taken over by Sudan's army Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers celebrate after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
A Sudan army soldier holds a national flag to celebrate after the army take over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers pose for a group picture after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers take over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
While the war is unlikely to end soon, here is a look at what the developments could mean.
The war erupted in April 2023 between the military and the RSF with battles in Khartoum and around the country. The leaders of the two forces had been allies who were meant to have overseen the democratic transition after a popular uprising in 2019, but instead worked together to thwart a return to civilian rule.
However, tensions exploded into a bloody fight for power.
Since then, at least 28,000 people have been killed, though the number is likely far higher. The war has driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine.
The military victory in Khartoum likely just moves the war into a new chapter, creating a de facto partition of Sudan into military- and RSF-run zones.
Military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan has shown no sign of engaging in serious peace talks. The RSF, headed by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has seemed to be determined to keep fighting.
The RSF still holds much of western Sudan, particularly most of the Darfur region.
Also, Khartoum International Airport, only some 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) southeast of the republican Palace, has been held by the RSF since the start of the war.
The advances in Khartoum may cause strains to break open in the military’s coalition. The military has been backed by a collection of armed factions — including former Darfur rebels and Islamist brigades — that are historic rivals united only by the goal of fighting the RSF.
The RSF and its allies signed a charter in February in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, establishing a parallel government.
Burhan also has spoken of setting up a transitional government, raising the potential for two rival administrations jockeying for support as their forces battle — entrenching Sudan’s effective partition.
The RSF’s 16-page charter calls for “a secular, democratic and decentralized state,” maintaining what it called Sudan’s “voluntary integrity of its territory and peoples” — a nod to Sudan’s many communities demanding autonomy from Khartoum.
The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by then-president Omar al-Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur. The Janjaweed were accused of mass killings, rapes and other atrocities.
In the current war, the RSF has been accused of numerous atrocities. The Biden administration slapped Dagalo with sanctions, saying the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide. The RSF has denied committing genocide.
The military has also been accused of abuses and denies that.
Sudan army soldiers celebrate after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
The Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, is seen after it was taken over by Sudan's army Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers celebrate after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
The Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, is seen after it was taken over by Sudan's army Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers celebrate after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
A Sudan army soldier holds a national flag to celebrate after the army take over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers pose for a group picture after they took over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
Sudan army soldiers take over the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo)
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Israel said it would respond “severely” to an attack from Lebanon after rockets were fired into northern Israel Saturday morning, a day after it vowed to increase the intensity of its operations in Gaza.
Israel's army said the intercepted rockets were targeting the Israeli town of Metula. This is the second time rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Israel since December, sparking concern about whether the fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would hold.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into an all-out war in September as Israel carried out massive waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders. The fighting killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.
Under the ceasefire reached in November, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January. The deadline was then extended to Feb. 18 by agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
But since then, Israel’s remained in five locations in Lebanon located across from communities in northern Israel and has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah targets. Lebanon has appealed to the U.N. to pressure Israel to fully withdraw from the country.
On Saturday, Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said the country will not allow Lebanon to fire into Israeli communities. “We promised security to the Galilee communities and that is exactly what will happen,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
In a statement, Lebanon's Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, asked the Lebanese military to take all necessary measures in the south, but said the country did not want to return to war.
The strikes come a day after Israel said it would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity” until Hamas frees the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive.
Israel's military said Friday its forces were planning fresh assaults into three neighborhoods west of Gaza City and issued warnings on social media for Palestinians to evacuate the areas.
Also on Friday, Israel blew up the only specialized cancer hospital in the war-torn territory. The Israeli military said it struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, accusing Hamas militants of operating on-site. Turkey, which helped build and fund the hospital, said Israeli troops at one point used it as a base.
Around 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel relaunched the war earlier this week. Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel, and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, aiming to pressure Hamas over ceasefire negotiations.
The international community has condemned the resumed attacks. In a statement Friday, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany called Israel's strikes in Gaza a dramatic step backward. “We are appalled by the civilian casualties and urgently call for an immediate return to a ceasefire," they said in a joint statement.
The attack by Hamas-led militants in 2023, killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporter Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
People walking surrounded by buildings destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip are seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
FILE - Ronen Bar, chief of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security agency, attends a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and victims of attacks at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery, May 13, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool photo via AP, File)
In this image made from a video released by the Israeli Government Press Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Israeli Government Press Office via AP)
Palestinians carry bundles of wood as they walk along a beach road leaving northern Gaza during the renewed Israeli army offensive in the Gaza Strip, Friday March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip sit in a makeshift tent camp inside a landfill in central Gaza Strip, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Israelis attend a rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, and calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Demonstrators block a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, in Jerusalem on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians including children who were killed by an Israeli army airstrike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza city, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his 11 years old daughter Aya Al-Samri who was killed by an Israeli army airstrike, during her funeral at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza city, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings and other items, move between southern and northern Gaza along a beach road away from the areas where the Israeli army is operating after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, in the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings, wood and other items, move between southern and northern Gaza along a beach road away from the areas where the Israeli army is operating after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, in the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
