Sudanese army chief says battle against paramilitary forces about to end

KHARTOUM - Chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on Sunday said that the battle against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is nearing its end and that the rebellion would be eradicated.

Al-Burhan, also the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), made the remarks while visiting the SAF's General Command headquarters in capital Khartoum, which had recently been freed from a 21-month siege imposed by the RSF, according to a sovereign council statement.

"The battle is coming to its end and the rebellion will be eradicated. Our pledge to the Sudanese people is that we will fight these criminals until we defeat them," Al-Burhan told a crowd of soldiers.

"The armed forces are capable and resilient. They will not be defeated, and their history speaks for itself," he said.

On Friday, the Sudanese army announced it had broken the siege of its General Command headquarters, which had been in place since the outbreak of war in April 2023.

The General Command, located in the heart of Khartoum, comprises five main buildings, including the Army Headquarters, Navy Command, Air Force Headquarters, Military Intelligence, and the Ministry of Defense.

Sudan has been gripped by a devastating conflict between the SAF and the RSF since mid-April 2023, which claimed at least 28,000 lives and displaced over 15 million people, either inside or outside Sudan, according to the latest estimates by international organizations.