The Stench of Death Rises from a Khartoum Neighborhood

Sudan Events – Agencies

A foul odor emanates from a sewage pit in a war-ravaged neighborhood in Khartoum as Red Crescent volunteers work to retrieve a bloated corpse from underground. According to the volunteers, 14 more bodies remain buried.

Hisham Zain Al-Abidin, the director of forensic medicine in Khartoum State, told Agence France-Presse on-site that some bodies “bear gunshot wounds to the head and have shattered skulls.”

He added that the victims were either shot or beaten to death before being dumped into the pit.

Behind him, the back of a truck was filling up with corpses retrieved from the sewage pit in East Nile, one of the eastern areas of Khartoum, now reduced to rubble.

The war, which has been raging for over two years between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has caused severe destruction across vast areas of land.

Since the conflict began, more than 3.5 million residents have fled Khartoum—a city that was once vibrant—according to the United Nations.

Millions more, unable or unwilling to leave, now live among abandoned buildings, car wrecks, and what the army calls hidden mass graves.

A City in Ruins

The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has continued since April 2023.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 12 million people, according to UN figures. Many live in temporary camps, while over 3.5 million have fled across borders.

Initially, the RSF took control of Khartoum, but in recent months, the army has regained areas, including Bahri (also known as North Khartoum) and East Nile.

Currently, army units in central Khartoum are less than a kilometer away from the presidential palace, which the RSF seized at the start of the war.

Despite these army advances, Dagalo remains defiant, vowing that his forces will not withdraw from the capital. In a speech via Telegram, he declared, “We will not leave the Republican Palace,” adding, “We are coming to Port Sudan”—the Red Sea city where the government has been based since the fall of Khartoum.

A team from Agence France-Presse, under military escort, traveled from Omdurman—Khartoum’s twin city, which the army reclaimed last year—through Bahri and its war-torn outskirts.

The convoy passed through desolate, abandoned neighborhoods, including Al-Haj Yousif, where rows of shuttered shops and crumbling sidewalks lined the streets.

Debris, rubble, and discarded tires littered the roads. Small groups of people sat in front of bullet-ridden buildings and empty shops, scattered every few streets.

Hospitals and schools have ceased operations. The army claims to have discovered multiple mass graves, including one at the Omdurman courthouse.

For civilians still in the city, the trauma of war is evident.

Salahah Shams Al-Din, a resident near the pit where RSF forces dumped bodies, said, “I heard gunfire at night several times and saw them throwing bodies into the well.”

Hunger

For those who survived and witnessed the army’s recent recapture of the area, life remains a daily struggle. Electricity is cut off, and access to clean water and food is scarce.

On a quiet street in Bahri, about 40 women sit under a makeshift tent, preparing meals in a community kitchen—one of several that suffered under RSF control.

They cook aseeda (a Sudanese porridge) and lentils in large pots over wood fires.

Gas is no longer available, and water trucks now arrive from Omdurman—an improvement compared to the period when residents had to risk sniper fire to fetch water from the Nile, which itself poses health risks due to the lack of sanitation services.

According to the UN, community kitchens have become the last line of defense against hunger for struggling civilians. However, they have faced enormous difficulties throughout the war.

With roads cut off, markets destroyed, and RSF fighters looting volunteers at gunpoint, feeding the needy has become nearly impossible.

Mouayad Al-Haj, a volunteer at a community kitchen in Shambat, said, “During RSF control, we had funding issues because they confiscated money transferred via banking apps.” He added, “But now, things have changed—phone networks are working, and we go to Omdurman every two weeks to bring supplies.”

What began as a power struggle between Burhan and Dagalo has escalated into the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.

The war has devastated Sudan’s infrastructure, collapsed its already fragile economy, and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), supported by the UN, famine has been declared in three displacement camps.

In Khartoum alone, at least 100,000 people are experiencing famine-like conditions, according to the IPC.