War in Sudan, My personal experience (Part one)

By: Gabari Abba Ahmad

19th May, 2023

      I woke up in the morning, it was Saturday, and my roommate was talking trough phone with my friend, after he hung up the phone he looked at me and told me that he was talking with our friend from International University of Africa’s campus, he was told that the war was started between Sudanese military and Paramilitary (Rapid support forces RSF).

As foreigners we didn’t take the war serious at the beginning, as we know; both Alburhan the Head of state and his vice Hamaity both of them worked under Elbashir, and they were loyal to Elbashir until the time of coup.

General Abdulfatah Alburhan  was born in1960, from Nahr Neil state, he joined Sudanese army and he was the commander of western region during Darfur war, he got a name of God of Foor because he killed many people there, he became chief of Arm staff at the end, he plotted a coup and became a president.

General Muhammad Hamdan Doglo Himaity Was born in 1975 in western Sudan, Nyala under Southern Darfur state, he did not attend school, but some people are saying “he was a school dropout when he was 15 year old, he started a business which was securing Camel traders from western Sudan to Mali and Libya, and he became the leader of Janjaweer.

Rapid support forces) RSF (الدعم السريع)Are special forces, they fight for money in some Arabs country, they were created in 2013 by General Umar Elbashir former Sudanese president, he asked them to organize themselves and he helped them, they got weapons from Sudanese government to help the government during Darfur civil war, their uniform is light brown and they paint their vehicles with the same color, while Sudanese military use green color.

I have had a discussion with a Sudanese lawyer and former Sudanese intelligent officer on 10th April, 2023 before this war, I was told that people especially youth were joining into RSF, when General Doglo has a business with many countries which is helping them in war, he has been using his forces to fight for money, but the lawyer told me one of Sudanese Ulama condemned this act and clarified it as impermissible.

The genesis of this war is “General Alburhan asked General Doglo to merge his forces with Sudanese military and to take them back to forest from Khartoum the capital of Sudan, they brutalized people, and Sudanese do not like them, Hamaity refused to because they invited him and his forces from forest to come to their aids during riot and protest against President Umar Bashir, after a military coup in 11th April, 2019 Ahmed Awad Bn Auf  vice  to General Elbashir became succeeded to Elbashir for a one day, than another coup was happened on 12th April, 2019.

Aburhan became a Head of state and choose General Doglo as his vice after the roled  a good  paly in that coup, they name their government “Transitional sovereignty council (مجلس السيادة الإنتقالية) they promised to return the government to civilian, but Sudanese refused to accept it, in October 2021 Abdalla Hamdok (who worked with UNECA and refused to be finance minister under Elbashir) got an appointment to become a Prime minister because he was among those who believed in Forces of Freedom and Change ( قوي الحرية والتغيير) in October 2021 during the Sudanese coup d’état  Hamdok was Kidnapped and moved to unclosed location, and he resigned on 2nd January 2022.Since that time RSF remain in Khartoum they were accommodated in the city, regulating some issues, beating Protestants…

 In the beginning of 2023 President Alburhan asked General Himaity Doglo to merge his forces RSF with Sudanese military and to make them to be one force to the nation, but General Himaity rejected the idea, secondly President Alburhan asked his vice Himaity Doglo to move RSF out from Khartoum, he insisted that they don’t need them in the city, this is the beginning of the war which has started on 15th April, 2023.

The situation of masses in Khartoum During civil war is bad, Only Allah knows how people have been suffering from the beginning of this war to date, and no one can tell you when this war will be end, it’s unscheduled war, we woke up in the morning and found the city was in war, some people were in Khartoum airport sitting and waiting to be called into flight their boarding pass were already received, and some people were already in the flight, door were closed, the flight started moving to sky, the RSF intruded into the airport tried to stopped the flight but at the end they shoot it, they asked everyone to lay down on the ground, they continued intimidating those in the airport shooting ceiling, then after that they asked them to go out, and the airport were hijacked by RSF.

The RSF took controlled of many places, they burnt grocery market, and life of Sudanese relied on bread, the shortage of flour been a moral obligation to those own bakery company to closed their bakeries, the announcement was; everyone must be indoor because bullet is blind, many lost their lives because the Sudanese government has only control on aircraft therefore they use rocket to destroy and fight RSF paramilitary, but many of their rockets were lost the target and felt in many house, one of these rocket were fell down in our neighbor house, the reverberate cracked window glasses, even our room glass was cracked (it is still echoing in my ears).

Within three days, a lot of Sudanese left the city (Khartoum) to the eastern states: Aljazira, Gadharif, Kasla, Sinnar and Red sea, foreigners started thinking of evacuation, because the war has looked to be endless the control of Khartoum was on the hand of RSF, Police stations were closed, two prison break and all markets were closed, they even destroyed transformers many areas became in blackout, criminals spread in the city, whenever you try to come out you must get strong stick or cutlass as self-protection.