War-ravaged Sudan's Capital, Khartoum, in ruins: After two years of conflict unveils a shattered cityscape
In the ruins of Khartoum, the once bustling city now stands in silence. The streets, teeming with seven million people, are now empty. At Khartoum International Airport, remnants of planes charred by war are the only signs of life. Even the Presidential Palace lies in ruins.
Accessing the capital of Sudan for the first time since the conflict, a team from France Télévisions found a city devastated by a war that has been raging since April 2023. This war pits the regular army, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
A City Transformed
Returning to her war-torn hometown, Sarah Hieba is struck by the devastation. "This was the Greek school, this the European Union building, this my workplace, and this the city center - it used to be so crowded," she lamented, recalling the city's former vitality. For two years, Khartoum was under the control of armed militias, with the regular army only regaining control on March 26 of this year.
In her childhood home, everything has been looted, and disarray has taken over the living room, with Sarah's youth photographs scattered about. "It's so strange to see the city deserted," she shares, having kept up with the news and followed the situation through videos and photos from afar. "We had a normal life, a simple life. We didn't expect to have a war. Maybe a coup, but not a war..."
Near the University of Khartoum Hospital, the oldest in the capital, the ground is littered with bodies of men, while inside, the building has been stripped of all operating equipment, and wires have been ripped out. Abderrahmane Ibrahim, who has been the hospital's guardian for 15 years, can only cry out in disbelief, "It's not a hospital anymore, it's a ruin."
The war between the two sides has thrust the entire country into an unprecedented spiral of violence, resulting in the "worst humanitarian crisis," according to the United Nations. Since 2023, the fighting has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced more than 13 million people to flee.
A Nation Unraveling
On the outskirts of Khartoum, the Al Nao hospital continues to function, admitting victims from both sides, most of them civilians. A man, held by the paramilitary for six months, arrived with an infected leg and a broken arm, sharing his harrowing tale of barely surviving with dry bread and sugar, and weekly beatings.
The third-largest country in Africa is now fragmented. The army of General Burhane controls the center, east, and north of the country, while the militias dominate the west, with almost the entire Darfur region and some parts of the south under their control. Both sides have made mass rape a weapon of war, as testified by a traumatized woman who was attacked by paramilitary forces.
"They took my husband out; I, two men raped. When the first one left the room, the second one entered. They threw the children out, they were crying," she recounts, still grappling with the horrors of war. "I have night terrors. When someone knocks on the door, I'm afraid too. I feel like it's them coming back. I have a lot of nightmares." Such is the descent into chaos that Sudan has endured.
(Analysis for context: The conflict between Sudan’s regular army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the RSF has its roots in a power struggle within the military, historical background, regional and ethnic dimensions, and external influences. The war has led to widespread fighting, a severe humanitarian disaster, and no clear resolution in sight, with the conflict affecting the broader region.)
- On French television, news about Sudan has increasingly focused on un, war-and-conflicts, as the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues to devastate the country.
- Amid the general-news and crime-and-justice updates, stories of the looting and destruction in Khartoum's city center highlight the chaos and disarray caused by the prolonged conflict.
- In the midst of abandoned buildings and a deserted city, accidents have become increasingly common due to the unstable infrastructure, adding another layer of complexity to the already dire humanitarian situation in Sudan.
