Sudan’s season of displacement everywhere

In the memory of the Sudanese, Khartoum has remained the place where the people of all parts of Sudan resort to when the need arises. Whether due to armed conflict or natural disasters, the capital of this big country has generally represented a safe embrace for all, and this was a major reason for the continuous geographical expansion that affected it.

But what will happen to the people of Khartoum, including those who have been displaced or sought refuge in it throughout the seven decades that followed its independence if they are forced to abandon it?

The answer became clear after the outbreak of armed fighting on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which brought with it Sudan’s season of displacement everywhere.

Five days after the outbreak of the armed fighting and its spread to all neighborhoods of Khartoum, I was personally convinced of the inevitability of leaving. It is nothing but survival instinct. But the most important question was: Where am I going?

The people of Khartoum had three ways out: north, south, and east, while the direction of escape to the west was almost impossible due to the simultaneous outbreak of fighting in Kordofan and Darfur.

Fleeing north may have been difficult in the early days, especially with the intensification of the struggle over control of Merowe International Airport (420 km north of Khartoum) between the SAF and RSF. In the south, and since.

Moving southwards, what we mentioned regarding the north also applied to the White Nile road to the southwest. The road witnessed bloody fighting due to the presence of RSF camps near the Jebel Aulia reservoir. However, since Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, it has two southwards: southwest parallel to the White Nile and southeast parallel to the Blue Nile. The best option for the majority was to flee southeast of Khartoum along the Blue Nile towards the city of Wad Madani (190 km from Khartoum), which remained Sudan’s number two city and was even the capital of the country during the Ottoman colonization.

On the fifth day of fighting, when I reached Wad Madani, it was clear that the city had received a large number of displaced people from Khartoum. At that time, I learned that the prices of apartments ranged between 20,000-40,000 Sudanese pounds per day (approximately $30-50). According to the city's residents at the time, this is double the figure of what it was before the city was overcrowded with newly displaced people.

I went to the city market on the second day of my arrival, to discover two things: the fuel crisis and the high prices due to the decline in the price of the dollar in response to the high demand for the Sudanese currency.

The Sudanese have long been satisfied with using financial applications, especially the Bank of Khartoum application Bankak, due to the inflation that affected their national currency, which made carrying the Sudanese currency impractical and even impossible. However, these applications were disrupted by a power outage after the outbreak of hostilities, so unfortunately not everyone had cash. The demand for the local currency increased, causing the dollar and gold to drop in value.

A visit to the city market was enough for me to know that life would get more difficult in the coming days, which it did. The civilian authorities had to house the displaced in schools, so I decided to leave Wad Madani the next day.

That evening, I headed towards the city of Kosti on the banks of the White Nile. It is a city that, as we mentioned, was difficult to reach from Khartoum. We rented a small commuter van, which cost about $230 (twice the normal price).

We reached the city of Kosti and found it quiet on the night of Eid al-Fitr. The effects of the fighting had not reached it yet, except for the heavy sadness on people's faces over the country's fortunes. On the morning of Eid al-Fitr (April 21), we set off south towards the borders of South Sudan. But that's another story.