The military says it is working to clear 'remaining rebel pockets' inside the state capital of Gezira.
The Sudanese army and allied armed groups have entered Wad Madani and were pushing out the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary from the strategic town in Gezira state, according to the army.
In a statement on Saturday, the armed forces “congratulated” the Sudanese people on “our forces entering the city of Wad Madani this morning” after more than a year of RSF control.
“They are now working to clear the rebel pockets that remain within the city,” the statement said.
There was no immediate comment from RSF.
The office of the army-affiliated government spokesman and Minister of Information and Culture Khalid al-Aiser said the army had “liberated the city”.
The army posted a video that appeared to show soldiers inside the town that the RSF has held since December 2023.
The Sudanese army and the RSF have been at war since April 2023, causing what the UN says is the world's worst displacement crisis and the outbreak of famine in parts of the northeast African country.
Wad Madani is strategic as it is a crossroads of major supply roads connecting several states, and is the closest major city to the capital Khartoum.
Army' in most of Wad Madani'
Al Jazeera's Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said that military forces had been advancing towards the city in recent days.
“They have been taking over towns in the south and south-east of the state (Gezira) until this morning, when they took over the Hantoub Bridge – a secure bridge that goes into the town -big,” she said.
“The army is now in most of Wad Madani,” she said.
“The army and friendly fighters have spread around us throughout the streets of the city,” one witness told AFP news agency from his home in central Wad Madani, requesting anonymity for his safety.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of committing war crimes including targeting civilians and indiscriminately burning residential areas.
The paramilitary forces have been accused of massacres, rampant looting, systematic sexual violence and siege of entire villages.
United States Tuesday said the RSF had “committed genocide” and sanctioned its leader, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti.
The local defense committee, one of hundreds of anti-democracy volunteer groups across the country coordinating frontline support, hailed the Wad Madani advance as an end to RSF “tyranny”.
Witnesses in military-controlled cities across Sudan reported dozens of people taking to the streets to celebrate the news.
Twelve million were exterminated
The recapture of the state of Gezira in its entirety could mark a turning point in the war that began over disputes over the unification of the two forces, which has created one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world.
Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 12 million people, more than three million of whom have fled across borders.
In the early months of the war, more than half a million people sought refuge in Gezira, before an RSF offensive displaced up to 300,000 in December 2023, according to the UN.
Most have since been displaced again, as the dreaded paramilitaries moved further and further south.
The RSF still holds the rest of the mainly agricultural state of Gezira, as well as almost all of Sudan's western Darfur region and areas of the country's south.
The army controls the north and east, as well as parts of the capital Khartoum.
