Sudan: Waiting and praying for news of victory after two years of war

Published

3 months ago

February 18, 2025

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From the crowded northwestern market spilling over with returnees, vendors and soldiers, to the barren stalls of central Omdurman still devastated by brutal battles, people here are praying for news of a military victory after almost two years of war.

Omdurman, along with Khartoum and Khartoum North (Bahri), are jointly called the tri-capital and constitute the national capital of the republic of Sudan.

The Sudanese army has now reclaimed Khartoum North and is moving quickly to liberate Khartoum – the heart of the capital – from all directions.

Its grass-roots support here is born out of sheer necessity – a need to release Sudan’s cities from a deadly occupation by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – the militia that was once trained and armed by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is fighting it for absolute control.

RSF siege conditions, SAF airstrikes and shelling have killed tens of thousands of civilians in the capital alone, and now the final battles for its liberation are proving to be the most brutal.

“We have seen heads cut off bodies,” emergency response room (ERR) volunteer Momen Wad Zeinab tells us in the backyard of one of the few functioning hospitals, Al Nao hospital in Omdurman.

“We see a lot of things. We aren’t good, all of us. One of our fellow volunteers has gone mute for over a month now. We have tried to give him relaxants to help him but now we have had to keep him away from the hospital.”

Momen adds: “Nowadays, we are with the military because we see the RSF as the big enemy. First, we will finish with the RSF by attack or negotiation. Then, after the war, we will try to rebuild.”

Sky News goes inside a liberated district in Sudan’s war-torn capital
Videos lift veil on hidden horrors in Sudan after ‘100 villagers massacred’

The ERRs have been hailed for their life-saving work and nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. But their revolutionary roots as the neighbourhood resistance committees that planned pro-democracy demonstrations and treated injured protesters in Sudan’s 2019 revolution have left them vulnerable to arrests by the Sudanese authorities.

Under his breath, Momen tells us the intelligence officer escorting our team through the hospital has arrested him before. When I called to speak to him a day later, he’d just been released from detention after showing up to provide assistance at another health facility in Omdurman failing to keep patients alive.

“Our revolution has become another kind of revolution. It is not always about marches and fighting and saying no – sometimes it is by helping people here,” he says.

“After the war finishes, we will go back to the street and fight against the military and say to them we need civilians to rule this country.”

One of his fellow volunteers was killed in the recent RSF shelling of Al Nao hospital. Four other members of this ERR have died from sickness or combat injuries. And after risking their lives since the start of the war in April 2023, their capacity has now been compromised by Donald Trump’s freezing of USAID funding.

Past the dwindling ERR pharmacy giving out free medicine and the bustling blood bank, there is an outdoor waiting room where we find 13-year-old Mohamed.

He was caught in the latest RSF shelling of one of the largest surviving markets in SAF territory, Sabreen. Shrapnel broke Mohamed’s leg as he sold biscuits at a stall to help his family.

The strike was one of the deadliest single attacks in the capital since the start of the war, killing close to 60 people and injuring 200.

“I saw dead people and bodies torn apart. It was not a pretty sight,” Mohamed tells me with wide eyes.

“When I remember it, I feel shock.”

The bricks and cement that made up a two-storey building in Sabreen market are still crumbling at the site of the attack.

“People are just trying to eat. They have nothing to do with the military, nothing to do with this war,” the area commander tells us, pointing at the rubble.

“The RSF knows where the military sites are but they want to terrorise civilians.”

Two weeks later, the streets of Sabreen market are heaving with people who have to make a living despite the risk, civilians and soldiers merging into a river of people.

As we approach the car to leave the market, a security officer yells in our direction: “No civilian rule, no nothing! Only dictatorship from now on!”

There is a tense silence of embarrassment and glares from the soldiers around him. For the first time, it is hard to tell who is a career officer and who could be a protester turned recruit.

“Revolutionaries have become military recruits, community volunteers have become military recruits, and Islamists have become military recruits,” a revolutionary turned soldier, Tewa, tells me after another day on the frontline.

“Whatever our background is and differences are, there is now a collective goal to defend the country.”

World

Donald Trump says he has call with Putin planned – as Ukraine condemns Russia over bus attack

Published

2 hours ago

May 18, 2025

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Donald Trump says he has call with Putin planned - as Ukraine condemns Russia over bus attack

Donald Trump has said he will speak to Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately on Monday in a bid to secure a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The US president made the announcement on Truth Social – shortly after the Ukrainian president condemned Russia for the “deliberate killing of civilians” after a drone hit a bus in north-eastern Ukraine.

Mr Trump said he will speak to Mr Putin over the phone. He will then talk with Mr Zelenskyy and “various members of NATO”, he wrote.

In an all-caps post, he said: “HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END. GOD BLESS US ALL!!!”

The Ukrainian town of Bilopillia today declared a period of mourning lasting until Monday after nine people were killed in a Russian drone attack – which occurred just hours after Kyiv and Moscow held peace talks.

Seven others were injured, Ukrainian authorities said. The bus was evacuating civilians from a frontline area when the drone hit, the country’s national police said.

A “father, mother and daughter” were among the dead, Mr Zelenskyy said, writing on Telegram: “All the deceased were civilians. And the Russians could not have failed to understand what kind of vehicle they were targeting.”

The attack has also been condemned by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who said he was “appalled”.

“If Putin is serious about peace, Russia must agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, as Ukraine has done,” he wrote on X.

Representatives for Kyiv and Moscow met for direct peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, just hours before the drone attack.

While the discussions – which were not attended by the Mr Putin or Mr Zelenskyy – did not result in a truce, both countries agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners in their biggest swap yet.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said on national television the exchange could happen as early as next week.

Russia ‘threatened eternal war’ at peace talks

After a Ukrainian official yesterday said Russia made “unacceptable” demands during the discussions, a source from the Kyiv delegation has now told Sky News that Moscow threatened “eternal war”.

Separately, a senior Kyiv official said Russia’s proposed ceasefire terms included the full withdrawal of troops from four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk.

Moscow also called for international recognition that those regions and Crimea – annexed in 2014 – are Russian and for Ukraine to become a neutral state, with no allied troops stationed there, they said.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter.

Ukraine has rallied support from its allies following the talks, and a number have spoken out.

French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Today, what do we have? Nothing. And so I tell you, faced with President Putin’s cynicism, I am sure that President Trump, mindful of the credibility of the United States, will react.”

The EU is working on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

World

Israel and Hamas resume ceasefire talks after ‘extensive strikes’ on Gaza

Published

5 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Israel and Hamas resume ceasefire talks after 'extensive strikes' on Gaza

Israel and Hamas said ceasefire talks have resumed in Qatar – even as Israeli forces ramped up a bombing campaign and mobilised for a massive new ground assault.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it had been “conducting extensive strikes and mobilising troops” as part of preparations to expand operations in Gaza.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas had “refused to discuss negotiations without a cessation of the war”, but after the airstrikes and the mobilisation of forces the militant group’s representatives “have agreed to sit in a room and seriously discuss the deal”.

“Israel emphasises that if the talks do not progress, the [military] operation will continue,” he added.

A Hamas source told Sky News that ceasefire talks began in Doha on Saturday morning.

Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters news agency that the two sides were involved in discussions without “pre-conditions”.

He added Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success.

More than 150 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

This week has been one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March and marked a significant escalation in Israel’s offensive.

The Israeli military’s preparations to expand operations in Gaza have included the build-up of tanks and troops along the border.

It is part of “Operation Gideon Chariot”, which Israel says is aimed at defeating Hamas and getting its hostages back.

An Israeli defence official said earlier this month that the operation would not be launched before Donald Trump concluded his visit to the Middle East.

The US president ended his trip on Friday, with no apparent progress towards a new peace deal.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, leaders at the annual summit of the Arab League in Baghdad said they were trying to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

They also promised to contribute to the reconstruction of the territory once the war stops.

The meeting comes two months after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 5 May that Israel was planning an expanded, intensive offensive against Hamas as his security cabinet approved plans that could involve seizing Gaza and controlling aid.

This week, Israel said it had bombed the European Hospital because it was home to an underground Hamas base, but Sky News analysis has cast doubt on its evidence.

Israel’s goal is the elimination of Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.

Its military response has killed more than 53,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

World

The chilling moment in Russia-Ukraine peace talks – as Putin makes mockery of Trump’s efforts to end war

Published

5 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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The chilling moment in Russia-Ukraine peace talks - as Putin makes mockery of Trump's efforts to end war

Vladimir Putin made a mockery this week of Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Far from punishing him for it, the US president went out of his way to dodge calls to get tough with the Russian leader.

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On Sunday, President Trump called on leaders of both Russia and Ukraine to meet.

He posted: “President Putin of Russia wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY.”

That post let the Russian leader off the hook. Only the day before, Putin had been ordered by Ukraine’s allies, including America, to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.

The Russian president had swerved that demand, suggesting talks instead.

“If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions,” Trump posted before swivelling and backing Putin’s proposals for talks instead.

Undeterred, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted the call.

Putin though refused to go, sending officials instead.

And yet there was no reprimand from the US president. Instead, he chose to undermine the talks he had himself called for.

“Look, nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together,” he told reporters on Air Force One. So much for that then.

It is what happened in those talks though that should give the US president the greatest pause for thought about Putin’s intentions – as it does in Kyiv.

The message they brought was blunt and belligerent, threatening eternal war.

“We don’t want war, but we’re ready to fight for a year, two, three – however long it takes,” lead Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky is reported to have said. “We fought Sweden for 21 years. How long are you ready to fight?”

Far from offering a compromise, they are reported to have demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the four regions they have partially seized by force and the capitulation of another two, just for good measure.

And there was a chilling moment when the Russians are reported to have threatened their interlocutors like gangsters.

“Maybe some of those sitting here at this table will lose more of their loved ones,” Mednisky said. Russia is prepared to fight forever.

For Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, that was personal.

Max, his 23-year-old nephew, lost his life fighting the Russians in 2022 not long after their illegal and unprovoked invasion began.

At the end of this week, Putin appears scornful of Western efforts to end this war through a ceasefire and negotiations and Trump seems happy to let him get away with it.

Even Fox News, normally slavishly subservient to Trump, is wondering what gives.

Its anchor Bret Baier is no Jeremy Paxman, but in an interview last night asked Donald Trump 10 times if he might finally now put pressure on Putin.

The US president ducked and dived, talking about the money he had made in his Gulf tour, Zelenskyy’s shortcomings, Biden, and Iran instead. But he did not give a straight answer to the question.

With performances like that, Putin has nothing to worry about. Trump’s position though seems increasingly untenable.

Ukraine’s European allies though should be alarmed. They threatened Russia with sanctions and retaliation last weekend if he rejected a ceasefire. He now has.

With or without America, will they be good to their word?