Because of War, Sudanese Lose Money and Suffer from Oppression

Agencies – Sudan Events

What the Sudanese citizen “Abdul Fattah Al-Danglawi” collected during 40 years, “the harvest of his life”, he lost in one day, after his money and property were looted and he was expelled from his home by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum. He was forced to flee to the north of the country and then took refuge in Egypt, where he lives on support h his sons.
Abdul Fattah (67 years old), with a shaking voice and a sad tone, told Al Jazeera Net that he was surprised, more than a month after the war that broke out in mid-April, by 5 members of the RSF storming his house in Al-Taif suburb of eastern Khartoum.
Al-Danglawi narrates how the RSF members fired bullets next to his legs after he went out to talk to them in the courtyard of the house. They accused him of being an army officer, and despite his vehement denial, they asked him to hand over his car keys, gold, and money.
e recounts that his sick wife left her room after hearing the voices rising, with one of her grandchildren, and tried to calm the situation, but one of the armed elements put the barrel of a gun to the child’s head and demanded that they hand over the car key, gold, and money, or kill the child who was screaming and crying.
The same speaker goes on to say that he and his daughter were subjected to a severe test after his wife fainted and fell to the ground. He went with his daughter to his room and opened his safe in the presence of one of the gunmen. He took all the gold and money in it, including local and foreign currencies, and handed it over to the gunmen who drove his car and left after his daughter handed them her key while she was trembling. From the sight of her child with the weapon pointed at his head.
Abdul Fattah explains that his daughter went to a relatively distant house to seek help from her friend, the doctor, who was able to revive the wife, and they began thinking about leaving their home the next day to the Karary area in Omdurman, where the army controls, to reside temporarily with his brother.
The same witness goes on to narrate that he was surprised the next morning by a severe knock on the door. He went out upset and found a group of RSF in a car. They asked him to leave his house within 24 hours because it was located at an intersection and would be a focal point for them.
Misfortunes Don’t come singly
Abdul Fattah did not wait for the deadline that was set for him and asked his family to take some of their clothes. He went out for hours until he found a car with a large sum of money that he paid from money that remained hidden in his wife’s wardrobe. The car took dangerous roads during which they were subjected to inspection by the RSF in 5 locations until they reached the Karary, safe area in Omdurman.
Because misfortunes do not come singly, Abdul Fattah received a call from his partner stating that their store had been looted of what it contained, and the value of the appliances and electrical equipment in it, along with the attached store, was estimated at the equivalent of 150 thousand dollars.
In sad words, Abdul Fattah summarizes his story by saying that he was estranged from his homeland for more than 30 years in a Gulf country, and he returned two years ago to his country after the completion of the construction of his multi-storey house, where he lives on the ground floor and rents 6 apartments on the 3 floors. He entered into a partnership with what he brought, but he lost everything. That happened in a few days, and he later learned that the house had become walls after all its contents, including kitchen utensils, had been looted.
Abdul Fattah left Omdurman for the northern state before moving to Egypt on the advice of his children because their mother is sick and needs medical care. He currently lives on the support of two of his sons who work outside Sudan to pay his family’s expenses.
Abdul Fattah’s story summarizes what hundreds of thousands of Sudanese were exposed to, as the bloody war that broke out in Khartoum and spread to other regions of the country lost their property, money, savings, and homes, and set their lives back decades.
Depression to the point of death
Psychiatrist Samia Abdullah believes that the war directly affected the lives of the majority of Sudanese, and made a segment of them suffering from shocks, disorders, and other psychological crises such as memory loss, forgetfulness, and stupor.
The doctor tells Al Jazeera Net that what most leads to psychological tremors is the repeated memory of violent scenes and what the person is exposed to, whether he is exposed to violence, loses his property, or his money, possessions, and what he depends on in his life stolen, which leads to symptoms of anxiety, tension, depression, frustration, and hysteria.
Dr. Samia revealed that they had received reports from their colleagues in shelter centers inside the country or in neighboring countries stating that some Sudanese, including those who were businessmen or from the middle class, had suffered psychological trauma and were receiving treatment in psychiatric hospitals or with doctors in private clinics for psychological support because of what they were subjected to in their lives or their money, women also died due to “oppression.”
A person dies by oppression when he stands helpless and cannot understand what is happening around him, and when he loses everything in his hand and does not know where he will go tomorrow, according to the doctor.
Unemployment and poverty
Economist Haitham Fathi believes that the war led to the collapse of the citizen’s standard of living and the rise in the poverty rate, in addition to the plundering of citizens’ property and money by the RSF.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, the economist said that the migration of businessmen and merchants working in the industrial and craft sectors, including labor operators, to neighboring countries led to unemployment rates rising to more than 35%.
He explains that the weakness of the mechanism for operating the infrastructure and service sectors led to the disruption of the economic cycle and the collapse of the production market, accompanied by the weakness of the purchasing power of a large segment of Sudanese, which increased poverty rates.

The same expert believes that Sudan, as a country and its citizens, needs emergency financial support that meets a small part of their growing basic needs and pays attention to local production and developing the agricultural sector to provide food.