Sudan’s army says it has wrested control of the capital Khartoum from a feared militia accused of genocide after ousting it from the Presidential Palace and the city’s airport it had held since the start of a brutal two-year conflict.

Sudan’s army said Wednesday it had recaptured Khartoum’s international airport, and the military chief flew back to the capital for the first time in nearly two years of war, bringing the military closer to regaining full control of the city from the rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.

The Sudanese army is encircling Khartoum airport as it battles to oust its rival Rapid Support Forces from its final foothold in Sudan's capital.

The papers said that Machar was removed from the vice presidency and under arrest. Machar purportedly rejected the documents and refused a request to officially resign. Machar was then relieved of his personal devices and placed under house arrest before being moved to another building within the same compound.

President Salva Kiir ordered the arrest of Riek Machar, the opposition said, imperiling a 2018 peace deal. Several embassies urged their citizens to leave the country.

South Sudan’s main opposition party said Thursday a peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war has collapsed, following the arrest of its leader Riek Machar a day earlier. The party's deputy chairperson,