Sudan: Waiting and praying for news of victory after two years of war
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.”
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The wreckage of a vehicle in Kafouri, Sudan
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.”
Car wreckage in Kafouri
Destruction at a market
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.
Mohamed, 13, was caught in the latest RSF shelling of one of the largest surviving markets in SAF territory, Sabreen.
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.
Soldiers in Kafouri
A soldier near the front
“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.”
A child in a destroyed market
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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
‘Better late than never’: Palestinian minister says UK recognition of state would be ‘courageous step’
Britain will be taking “a courageous step at a very difficult time” by officially recognising a Palestinian state, according to the authority’s foreign minister, who told Sky News she believes the announcement – expected in the coming days – will inspire more nations to follow suit.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Varsen Aghabekian, told me Britain’s move was “better late than never”, and said “Britain, with its weight, can influence other countries to come forward and recognise, because that is the right thing to do”.
But she also said she is “very angry” with the White House over its “unwavering support” for Israel, and said that Israel’s refusal to pass on tax revenue was pushing Palestinian civil society to the brink of “collapse”.
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Could recognition of Palestine change the West Bank?
Aghabekian was speaking as Britain, along with France, Canada and Australia, prepares to recognise the State of Palestine officially at the United Nations.
She told me: “Britain has been supporting the existence and the flourishing of Israel for some time, but I think today Britain is looking at the matter objectively, in terms of the right of people, in terms of complying with international law, and in terms of the future of this area for both the Israelis and Palestinians.”
She rejected the idea that recognising Palestine was a reward for Hamas terrorism, saying that “non-recognition” would also be a “reward to the extremists” and said that “if we wait until Israel decides it wants to go into negotiations with the Palestinians, then it won’t happen”.
Aghabekian told me she expected Gaza to be returned to the Palestinians, but I put it to her that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was being empowered by the diplomatic support he receives from America, and in particular, US President Donald Trump.
So is she angry with the White House? “Very angry, because I expect the White House and the United States of America to align with international law, with human rights, with having no double standards.
“This unwavering support for Israel, this blind support, is not only harming the Palestinians but also Israeli society.”
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The state of Palestine is already recognised by three-quarters of the United Nations’ members. It comprises two separate territories – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Together, they are officially known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The West Bank has been subject to Israeli military occupation since 1967, while Gaza has been attacked by Israel since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, when nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 250 people were taken hostage.
Since then, more than 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza as Israel has sought to destroy Hamas and recover its hostages. There are 48 hostages still in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.
She confirmed to me that Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, “has given guarantees in letters to various leaders around the globe that said Hamas will not be part of the governance of the Gaza Strip” and insisted there was “probably a worldwide consensus” on the topic.
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How has UK responded to Israel-Gaza conflict?
But she also insisted it was “not reasonable” to talk of completely erasing Hamas: “Hamas is an ideology, not a building that you bring down. Hamas is in people’s minds; in their heads.
“Those who support Hamas need to see a future, need to see something that is moving on the political level, need to see that there might be a state in which their children and their grandchildren might prosper.
“What people see today, whether they are Hamas supporters or not, they see darkness and they see destruction all over. They see violation of rights. They are helpless and hopeless. People need to see things are moving forward, and once that happens, there will be a shift in the mood, and they will look for a better future.”
But just as the Palestinians prepare to welcome recognition, Aghabekian said the West Bank was facing financial collapse as Israel continues to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue that, under a 30-year-old agreement, it collects on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf.
Israel has retained a proportion of the money since the start of the war in Gaza, but, encouraged by finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, it has recently withheld a much higher amount.
“People have not been paid, civil servants are only receiving small parts of their salaries. We can’t buy medical supplies, equipment, you name it,” said Aghabekian.
“How can a government run a country under such conditions? So yes, we are very worried.”
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