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.

At the battle-scarred presidential palace in the heart of Sudan’s shattered capital, soldiers gathered under a chandelier on Sunday afternoon, rifles and rocket launchers slung over their shoulders, listening to their orders.

Sudan’s army has reclaimed the Presidential Palace in the capital, Khartoum, in a significant victory over a rampaging militia that controls swaths of the war-torn country.