Two years into a civil war, troops recaptured the palace in Khartoum, routing a paramilitary foe. Civilians have been trapped in the middle in a city with an apocalyptic air.

Sudan’s military says it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion in the capital of rival paramilitary forces, after nearly two years of fighting.

Sudan’s army is close to taking control of the Presidential Palace in Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, state TV reported on Thursday, in a significant milestone in a two-year-old conflict that threatens to fracture the country.