KHARTOUM: One month since Sudan’s conflict started, its capital Khartoum is a desolate war zone where terrorized and fearful families huddle in their homes as gun battles continue in the dusty, deserted streets outside.
As Sudanese hope to dodge stray bullets, they also face desperate shortages of food and basic necessities, power blackouts, communications outages, and soaring inflation.
Khartoum, a city of 5 million, was a place of relative stability and richness, even under decades of sanctions against ex-strongman Omar al-Bashir.
Now the important city has become a shell of its former self.
Foreign embassies are shuttered, charred aircraft lie on the airport tarmac, and hospitals, shops, banks, and wheat silos are looted.
Fighting continued Monday morning, with explosions heard across the capital and thick smoke billowing in the blue sky while war jets flying overhead drew anti-aircraft fire, witnesses said.
The situation is worsening by the day,” said a 37-year-old netizen of southern Khartoum told AFP, requesting not to be named.
He said people are becoming more fearful because the two warring sides are becoming more violent.
The fighting started on 15 April between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former second-in-command Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
While the senior generals fight, what remains of the government has retreated to Port Sudan, nearly 850 kilometres away, the hub for mass evacuations of both foreign citizens and Sudanese.
War kills over 750 people
The fighting has killed over 750 people, as per the data released by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, while thousands more were injured and about a million displaced.
Many truce agreements have been violated, and hopes are shrinking to end the battle.
