In Sudan’s capital, people are trapped inside as bodies pile up in the streets | CBC Radio

Dallia Abdelmoniem hasn’t left her home since Saturday.

The journalist-turned-baker lives in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where rival forces have been battling for control of the country since Saturday.

“With all the gunshots and the artillery and the jet fighters, it seems very much like a Hollywood production, but it’s not. It’s actually what’s happening outside — right outside our houses and our homes and in the middle of our capital city,” Abdelmoniem told As It Happens host Nil Köksal on Monday.

“It’s a new phenomenon for all of us in Khartoum. But right now, this is the reality we’re living in.”

Abdelmoniem is not alone. All over the city, people are holed up in their homes, schools or other buildings as the fighting rages around them, threatening to bring Africa’s third-largest country to civil war. 

Many are running out of food and water, and must choose between going without basic necessities or risking their lives to restock. Others, still, are without power.

Meanwhile, residents say dead bodies have been left lying in the streets, unreachable because of clashes — pointing to a toll that is likely to be far higher than the more than 185 dead reported so far by the United Nations.

How did it come to this?

The key players in these clashes are Sudan’s army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan; and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti.

In October 2021, both groups joined forces to orchestrate a coup against Sudan’s transitional government. That derailed Sudan’s efforts to transition to democracy after long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir was defeated in a separate coup in 2019.

Both generals have a long history of human rights abuses, and their forces have cracked down on pro-democracy activists.

Under international pressure, Burhan and Dagalo recently agreed to an internationally backed plan to cede power and launch a new transition government with civilian parties. 

A final deal was supposed to be signed earlier this month, but it was repeatedly delayed as tensions rose over the integration of the RSF into the armed forces and the future chain of command. 

Those tensions exploded into violence Saturday. Both sides pinned the blame on each other.

Aid workers trapped, attacked

Aid worker Katharina von Schroeder was taking her eight-year-old to school for tennis lessons on Saturday when the violence broke out. As of Tuesday, she was still there, along with several other parents, children and school staffers. 

“For now my plan is, together with my friends who are also trapped here, just to stay as safe as possible because there’s not much more we can do. It is too dangerous to go outside,” von Schroeder, who works as a spokesperson for Save the Children, told Köksal.

On Tuesday, Arab media reported the two factions had agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire. But when Von Schroeder spoke to CBC on Tuesday afternoon, she said the fighting hadn’t stopped.

“I hear airplanes flying, I hear strikes and detonations, so it doesn’t seem to be holding,” she said.

She’s focused, she said, on keeping her son and the other children safe, and distracting them from the sounds of war outside with toys and YouTube videos. 

“As a mother, I’m really worried about the physical and emotional well-being of my son,” von Schroeder said. “But I also feel with all the other parents here in the city, it’s not only us; it’s millions of people.”

Other aid workers in the country have been targeted, according to the UN.

Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian affairs chief and emergency relief coordinator, said on Tuesday the organization is “receiving reports of attacks and sexual violence against aid workers.”

“This is unacceptable and must stop,” Griffith posted on Twitter.

‘There is no respect to our lives’

The fighting also coincides with Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

“We are trying to take advantage of Ramadan to try to continue our faith and prayer,” Mohammed Al Faki, one of 89 students and staffers trapped in the engineering building at Khartoum University, told The Associated Press. “We are trying to help each other stay patient until this crisis is over.”

One student was killed by a sniper, he said, and they buried his body on the campus. The students and staff try to stay inside but, he said, they have had to go out for supplies occasionally, risking harassment by RSF fighters battling troops nearby.

WATCH | ‘This is our new normal,’ says Khartoum resident:

Khartoum resident discusses ‘new normal’ amid clashes in Sudan

The clashes in Sudan mean some citizens don’t have easy access to water and are uncertain of how the conflict will end. ‘This is our new normal now,’ said one Khartoum resident.

In addition to 185 deaths, the UN estimates 1,800 people have wounded since Saturday. The organization did not provide a breakdown of civilians and combatants. The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate said Tuesday that at least 144 civilians were killed and more than 1,400 wounded but that many dead could still not be reached to be counted. 

“There is no respect to our lives,” said Farah Abbas, a 65-year-old huddling in his home in Khartoum’s Mamoura district. “Nobody is able to go out even to bury bodies littered in the streets.”

‘Stuck in the middle’

Abdelmoniem, the former journalist, is holed up with her nieces and nephews at her home near the airport, where some of the most intense fighting is taking place. Already, she says she’s found bullets in her backyard. 

She says she’s hopeful that outside diplomacy with a strong hand could bring both sides back to the table.

In part, she says she blames the violence on the international community for treating RSF leader Dagalo “like an equal entity when, in fact, he should have been treated like a warlord.”

Then again, she said the army is “equally as brutal” and has been emboldened by what she called “remnants of the old regime.”

“And we’re the ones who are stuck in the middle,” Abdelmoniem said.

With files from The Associated Press. Interviews with Dallia Abdelmoniem and Katharina von Schroeder produced by Chris Harbord.