Al Jazeera :
Recent battlefield victories have supporters of Sudan’s army believing it can turn the tide against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, yet experts are ambivalent.
On March 12, the army recaptured the national radio and television building in Omdurman, Sudan’s second largest city and one-third of the national capital region.
The victory came weeks after the army broke an RSF siege to retake a few neighbourhoods in Omdurman.
“I wouldn’t be super optimistic, because it’s one thing to take over territory and it’s quite another to hold on to territory,” said Hagar Ali, an expert on military-civilian relations in Sudan and a PhD candidate at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies.
Despite the caution, the army’s recent victories do seem to cast doubt over the RSF’s ability to conquer the entire country, which had seemed likely after it captured Gezira state in December.
Losing the vital breadbasket state and relief hub was a major blow to the army. It raised serious questions about its ability to protect civilians from the RSF, a group accused of atrocities such as summary killings, sexual violence and armed robberies.
But the army’s recapture of the radio and television station is restoring some faith in its capabilities.
Taking the national radio and television is of particular significance because it is the building from which military leaders have historically announced their coups to the nation.
It could now serve as a useful tool to aid the army’s war effort, experts and Sudanese commentators told Al Jazeera.
