Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has vowed to retake Khartoum, despite recent losses to the Sudanese army.
In his first public remarks since RSF forces withdrew from much of the capital last week, Dagalo—commonly known as Hemedti—said the retreat was a “tactical decision” and promised a comeback.
“We will return to Khartoum stronger, more powerful, and victorious,” he declared in an audio message on Telegram.
The army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been consolidating its control over the capital region, recently capturing a key market in Omdurman that RSF forces had used for attacks.
The military already dominates much of Omdurman, which, along with Khartoum and Bahri, forms the heart of the war-torn capital area.
Burhan has ruled out any reconciliation with the RSF, vowing to crush the paramilitary group. The conflict, which erupted from a power struggle between the two factions, has devastated Sudan, displacing over 12 million people and pushing half of the country’s 50 million citizens into acute hunger.
A study last year estimated that the war may have killed 61,000 people in Khartoum state alone during its first 14 months. As fighting intensifies, Sudan’s humanitarian crisis continues to deepen, with no resolution in sight.
