They timidly venture outside, buy some food and return as quickly as possible, trying not to jump at each explosion: without water or electricity, the inhabitants of Khartoum have been living under the crossfire for 24 hours.
In the northern suburbs of the Sudanese capital, as elsewhere, no one has slept a wink because of the incessant roar of planes and air strikes, artillery or street battles with automatic rifles or heavy machine guns.
But Sunday morning, for one of the last fasting days of Ramadan, under an already exhausting heat that no fan can fight for lack of electricity, Farouq Hassan wanted to open his bakery.
“We have no more electricity, the water is cut but we continue to work,” he told AFP, distributing his cakes and other rolls to residents in a hurry to leave the street and their homes. hazards.
Because stray bullets are never far away. The fighting has already mowed down 56 civilians since Saturday, according to the provisional assessment of a network of pro-democracy doctors.
Sometimes rockets even get lost on the way in this pitched battle between the two generals in command of Sudan since the putsch they led together on October 25, 2021.
Saad Ahmed, 55, experienced it on Saturday evening. “A rocket fell ten meters from my house,” he says, still in shock at having gone so close to the worst with his family.
“The shooting and explosions never stop” around his house, he adds.
In Khartoum, the army bases such as the headquarters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), these paramilitaries from the war in Darfur who now want to dislodge the army from power, are installed in the middle of inhabited areas.
On social networks, there are countless videos taken from apartment windows showing armored vehicles, armed men or street fights filmed while shaking.
In the city with the sky covered in black smoke, Sanaa Mohammed, 43, fears the worst. Like everyone in Khartoum North, she feels that the situation is even more tense 24 hours after the outbreak of hostilities between soldiers and paramilitaries.
“Since yesterday”, she confides, “we have been living in terror”. “My children are traumatized by the sound of the explosions and the fact that there is no water or electricity makes the situation even worse.”
For Farouq Hassan, the baker, the worst may be yet to come.
Because currently, no vehicle can connect Khartoum to its suburbs. Bridges and main roads have been blocked by the armed forces in anticipation of clashes, or are now inaccessible because fighting is taking place there.
Trains from other provinces turned around on Saturday approaching Khartoum as reports of the fighting fell.
Without transport, supplies will melt away in a country where triple-digit inflation, recession and rampant poverty have already reduced consumption and the purchasing power of small traders to a minimum.
“If the supply trucks cannot circulate, our stock of flour will not last more than 48 hours”, is already alarmed by Mr. Hassan.
On Sunday, visibly determined to continue the fighting, the authorities declared the day off.
In any case, assure the inhabitants, no one would have left.
16/04/2023 13:58:01 – Khartoum (Sudan) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
