Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum
Like the moon between the clouds, the Atbara train slowly rolled over its future at Khartoum's main railway station in support of a sit-in by Sudanese protesters before the army's general headquarters in Khartoum.
And returned the old slogan, which sparked the protests, "the east has burned .. Atbara Merket", but this time the Sudanese chanted as they receive the train of revolutionaries Atbara "east of the east .. Atbara arrived."
The demonstrations erupted on December 19 from the industrial school in Atbara protesting a significant increase in bread prices.
The train traveled 310 kilometers from Atbara north to Khartoum in the south in about eight hours, with hundreds of railway workers and residents of the city of Atbara, and had to walk slowly because of the receivers at the stations.
Mass receptions
Under the pressure of the people, the train stopped at Damar and Shendi in the state of the Nile River, where the passengers were fed and drinking, and when the train entered north of Khartoum, the people of Kadro and Azirkab cut the road in front of him, cheering and cheering the women.
From Chambat through the net and the auction, the train was walking in the direction of the crowds because of the density of the recipients along the railway line and the large number of people who had covered the roofs of the train cars.
Once the train was routed to the Khartoum sea station, the revolutionaries stood up in the midst of the tears of the mourners, the cheering of the women and loud cheers glorifying the revolution.
On Sunday, protests were held for railway workers in Atbara, demanding accountability for all those involved in the deterioration and corruption that have gripped the railway sector in the past 30 years of ousted President Omar al-Bashir.
The protesters called for a train to the sit-in in Khartoum in support of the protesters until the realization of their demands to form a civilian government.
Iron and fire
Atbara is a revolutionary city with distinction. The railway union formed its identity throughout the past political era. It includes the presidency of the railway in Sudan and the size of the workshops attached to the presidency known as the City of Iron and Fire.
The railway union in Atbara resisted the military regimes, starting with Ibrahim Abboud and passing through Bashir Jaafar Nimeiri and ending with Omar Bashir.
The Sudanese do not forget a word attributed to Nemiri when he refused to establish a street linking Atbara with Khartoum, fearing the arrival of Atbara residents to the capital on their bicycles to demonstrate against him, where the family knew their bicycles.
About five decades after the Nimeiri talk, the people of Atbara arrived to demonstrate in Khartoum but on their train.
Among the recipients of the Atbara train were hundreds of residents of the city and their families who moved to Khartoum.
Expressions and memories
"From today we will not go back," said the head of the trade union organization Atabrah Ahmed Abdul Rahman, 83, waiting for the Atbara train. "Atbara is the first city to initiate this historic event in Sudan."
Taj al-Sir Hassan Abu Zaid, 76, was drowning in tears and told Al-Jazeera Net that he had been fired twice from his career in the fields of Nimeiri and Bashir. "The greatest thing that the revolution can give him is rebuilding the railway," he said.
Thousands of residents of Atbara, a privileged labor city, were forced to leave their jobs in the railway after Bashir took office in June 1989 under the pretext of what was then known as the "public good."
Return of Glory
Sudan has the longest rail network in Africa at 5978 km north (Halfa, Port Sudan, Atbara and Khartoum), Central (Khartoum, Wood Madani, Sennar and Damazin) and west to Wau in southern Sudan.
But the country's railway sector has deteriorated due to the inability to buy new vehicles or bring spare parts due to US economic sanctions.
Railway workers throughout the country, especially Atbara, hope to re-establish the glory of the train, which has shaped the Sudanese soul and has been reflected in their culture, culture and poetry.
The Atbara train was greeted by a crowd of protestors as it crossed the Khartoum sea station to cross the Blue Nile Bridge and enter the protesters' yard directly in front of the army command, giving the sit-in more momentum.