“Inside Sudan’s Military Struggle for Power: Omdurman’s Transformation from City to Barracks”

2023-04-23 22:18:27

Burnt by air strikes, paramilitary trucks littered main streets of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, as exhausted residents queued for bread in neighborhoods largely devoid of civilians and normal life.

Omdurman.. From a city to a military barracks

• Archyde.com correspondent crossed the Blue Nile heading to Bahri, which witnessed violent clashes during the past two days, before heading west and crossing the river to Omdurman to reach his family’s home from Khartoum, where he was staying with his relatives..
• The reporter toured a city whose features were changed by the military struggle for power.
• He saw a heavy deployment of Rapid Support Forces fighters in the areas he passed through in the three cities, and some of them were at checkpoints asking drivers to show identity documents..
• It was also possible to see the army soldiers, who residents and witnesses said started their first violent ground battles on Friday, at the entrance to the city of Omdurman, where tanks, pickup trucks and soldiers with automatic rifles were deployed..
• Today, more than a week after the outbreak of the clashes, the reporter saw the streets almost empty. In addition, obtaining petrol has become difficult and the number of cars on the road has decreased. Supplies of flour and other basic items are dwindling, and vegetables are scarce and expensive.
• In the main market in Bahri, many buildings were badly damaged and set on fire by the fighting and airstrikes.
• In some areas far from the center of Khartoum, buses were seen preparing to transport people north towards Egypt as part of a mass exodus that escalated during the past week..
• Some with small bags tried to get into other people’s cars or take minibuses out of town.

And near the Halfaya Bridge, which connects Bahri with Omdurman, a long diplomatic convoy with armed guards and flying the British flag was seen heading west in one of the evacuation operations of the embassy staff and foreign citizens that began on Saturday and increased its pace today with the fighting subsiding slightly..

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