General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Burhan has returned to his Khartoum headquarters, 17 months after abandoning it. On Sunday, January 26, following an offensive launched two days earlier from Bahri in the northern districts of the city, the head of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) reappeared in the basement of this fortress nestled in the heart of the capital. "Our forces are preparing a major advance in the next few days into Khartoum to clean it up and rid it of the filth of rebels, mercenaries and criminals," the leader of the Sudanese junta said to the cheers of his soldiers, freshly re-supplied after more than 20 months' of siege.

By breaking through the lines of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, north of Khartoum on Friday, the SAF succeeded in linking up their various regiments. Fighting is still raging in Shambat's Bahri base, but the soldiers are now able to project themselves into the city center and pincer the paramilitaries, who still control large parts of the capital.

For General Al-Burhan, this return is a show of strength in the war between him and his rival. During the first clashes on April 15, 2023, he found himself trapped in this loyalist army stronghold. After long weeks of resistance in his bunkers, encircled by his rival's paramilitary troops, the army chief mysteriously escaped across the Nile in August 2023, before reaching Port-Sudan, in the east of the country, from where he has since directed military operations.

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