Sudan paramilitary leader says 'lost' key Al-Jazira state capital

The commander of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has said his troops "lost Wad Madani", the state capital of Al-Jazira, as the army launched an offensive.

In an audio address to his fighters and the Sudanese people on Saturday, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo vowed to "regain all" of the central Sudanese city, which has been under RSF control since December 2023.

The army, battling the RSF since April of that year, said it had entered the city on Saturday and was "clearing the remnants of the rebels".

Government officials, loyal to the army, have hailed the recapture of the key city, a strategic crossroads of supply highways linking several states.

It is also the nearest major town to the war-torn capital Khartoum, 200 kilometres (124 miles) north.

"Today we lost a round, we did not lose the battle," Daglo said.

A video the army shared on social media earlier showed fighters claiming to be inside Wad Madani, after an army source said they had "stormed the city's eastern entrance".

The footage appeared to be shot on the western side of Hantoub Bridge in northern Wad Madani, which has been under RSF control since December 2023.

The office of army-allied government spokesman and Information Minister Khalid al-Aiser said the army had "liberated" the city.

Celebrating the army operation

"The army and allied fighters have spread out around us across the city's streets," one eyewitness said from his home in central Wad Madani, requesting anonymity for his safety.

Eyewitnesses in army-controlled cities across Sudan reported dozens taking to the streets celebrating the army military operation.

In the early months of the war between the army and the RSF, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira, before a lightning offensive by paramilitary forces displaced upwards of 300,000 in December 2023, according to the United Nations.

Most have been repeatedly displaced since, as the feared paramilitaries - which the United States this week said have "committed genocide" - moved further and further south.