Khartoum, Sudan:
The Eid al-Fitr holiday is usually a time for many residents of Sudan’s capital to visit relatives outside the city, which turns quiet. This year, those who were driven out by the war from Khartoum may have fled.
The capital still echoed with shelling and heavy artillery as a three-day Muslim holiday began on Friday, despite international appeals for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian relief and safe passage for stranded civilians.
Both sides in the conflict announced on Friday they would observe a ceasefire but sporadic gunfire continued into the evening in Khartoum.
Over the past week a growing number have sought to move to safer areas of the capital – although the army has closed bridges on the Nile between Khartoum and the sister cities of Omdurman and Bahri.
Or they have prepared a route, often to Gezira state in the south or Nile state in the north, carrying suitcases along the roads or balancing bags on their heads as they begin their journey.
Ahmad Mubarak, 27, said he felt “extreme anxiety” after the violence broke out on 15 April and before deciding to leave Khartoum on Thursday, taking only the clothes he was wearing.
“There were no buses, people were walking and moving with their bags. Cars were passing by, but they were all private cars and they were all full.”
Eventually he hitched a ride on a bus, whose owner was volunteering to take people out of the city, and drove it to Atbara, about 280 km (175 mi) northeast of Khartoum, where he returned to his family. Knocked on the door of the house. ,
“They couldn’t believe it. It was such a beautiful moment,” he said.
The power struggle between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force is the first time Khartoum has seen the kind of large-scale war and displacement that residents of the capital have seen play out in other parts of the country in recent decades.
The clashes, which began in the final days of the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, have cut water and electricity supplies for long periods, turned the airport into a battlefield and Most of the hospitals have been closed.
In many areas of Greater Khartoum, which has a population of more than 10 million, residents are trapped in their homes, leaving only to get supplies at stores that have been hit by looting and where supplies are dwindling.
loaded dice
Getting fuel has also become difficult. As with other goods, prices have skyrocketed since the fighting began.
“Khartoum has become dangerous and we fear the war will get worse,” said 55-year-old Mahasin Ahmed as he walked with two relatives from the neighborhood of Jabra in southern Khartoum to find a bus to Madani, 165 km (100 miles) away. Went out in the hope of ) in the southeast.
Those who flee get their first proper view of the devastation from the fighting, with buildings punctured by rockets, power lines torn, walls riddled with bullet holes and burned military vehicles abandoned in the streets. Smoldering remains are visible.
As violence flares up in other parts of Sudan, some have called for leaving the country entirely, with up to 20,000 crossing the border into Chad and others heading north to Egypt.
Travels are risky. Those fleeing often have to cross RSF checkpoints where they are usually waved off but where some civilians have reportedly been shot.
Makram Waleed, a 25-year-old doctor, was hoping to leave Khartoum with his family, but was concerned about the dangers to his three younger sisters.
“The risk of leaving your home, the risk of leaving your belongings, is very difficult to process,” he said.
In Khartoum, where the RSF has entrenched itself in several neighborhoods, some fear the paramilitary fighters will follow if they leave their homes.
Alia Mutawakel, a 26-year-old architect and interior designer living in Khartoum, was trying to find a safe way out of the city with her two siblings, her uncle and her children, and her 8-month-old nephew. Family and friends who had come to the city to celebrate Eid were ruined.
“Will we be able to leave home or not? If we leave home, will we be safe? And if we leave, will we be able to go back to our home and our life in Khartoum? There is no answer for them.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)