Residents of an area about 40 kilometers south of Khartoum welcomed army soldiers who reclaimed the area from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.

Sudan’s war has triggered a massive displacement crisis, with more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes.

The Sudanese army drove its rival Rapid Support Forces from most of Khartoum city, residents said on Wednesday, as the army chief toured the presidential palace and airport, marking a major military gain though the wider war looks far from over.

The Sudanese army has told the BBC it has recaptured the airport in the capital, Khartoum, from the paramilitary RSF, marking its latest territorial gain in the brutal two-year civil war. Gen Mahomed Abdel Rahman al-Bilawi said troops had fully secured it and might be able to clear the rest of the RSF fighters by the end of day.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces vowed on Thursday there would be "no retreat and no surrender" and said they had "repositioned" forces, after rival army troops recaptured nearly all of central Khartoum.

After nearly two years of civil war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, there is a potential turning point. The army has recaptured the presidential palace and the center of Khartoum.

The Sudanese army seized full control of the presidential palace in downtown Khartoum on Friday, it said in a statement, in what would be a major gain in a two-year-old conflict with a rival armed group that has threatened to partition the country.

By Declan Walsh and Abdi Latif Dahir Reporting from Nairobi A momentous battle is being fought for control of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. A civil war has engulfed the country for two years ...