Khartoum– "Instead of inhaling the smells of baking and preparing for Eid, they chose to take us with the smells of blood and gunpowder," said a woman in her thirties trying to buy some necessities from a shopping mall in the southern Khartoum suburb of Gabra, carrying her two-year-old daughter and struggling to quickly leave the place for fear of a surprise attack after the sounds of shelling that were heard from not far away.

Enaam Abdullah expresses her outrage at the security situation in the last ten days of Ramadan, without hiding her surprise at the reasons for the outbreak of battles in the middle of neighborhoods and residential facilities in Khartoum and where she lives in the Jabra area, which is witnessing sporadic clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and the army without regard for the lives of civilians, especially children and the elderly.

Paralysis hits the lap market in Al-Kalakla, which was characterized by severe overcrowding throughout the day (Al-Jazeera)

She tells Al Jazeera Net that their lives turned upside down within hours was not expected to turn Khartoum into a battlefield, and tells how they were planning to buy the needs of Eid for children and prepare bakery as they used to every year, but now they do not know how will be their coming days in light of the severe security complications, as well as talking about the closure of markets and the difficulty of movement to reach shopping centers in light of security threats and the spread of the military of the parties in separate areas in a way that terrifies her and her children and extreme panic.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday, the streets of Khartoum were empty of pedestrians and cars as fighting between the army and the Rapid Support intensified, large markets were closed, and residents struggled to secure food supplies due to the surprise factor that characterized the armed clashes.

And monitored a tour of the island net in several locations in the suburb of Kalakla, south of Khartoum, completely empty roads for the third day in a row after people committed to their homes for fear of exposure to the fire of the fighters and their shells, however, it seemed a slight movement in the market "roll" main for some traders of fruit and vegetable sellers, but with the lack of buyers as usual, as this market is a major center for buying and selling and intended by thousands of residents south of the capital.

Electricity and water cuts

Clashes between the RSF and the army have cast a shadow over the basic service network, and many areas of the capital have seen power and water supply cut off for hours.
The central area of Khartoum North has seen power outages since the beginning of the clashes, and confirms Mohamed Osman Ibrahim – for Al Jazeera Net – that the current is no longer only 3 hours, as the water supply was cut off and closed vital service facilities such as pharmacies and markets and the lack of transportation, and spoke to Al Jazeera Net about a wide military deployment in the Khartoum North market and forcing large numbers of citizens to leave on foot in search of safer areas.

Mansour Hamed, who lives in the Halfaya area in northern Khartoum, recounts that they have suffered since Saturday from water cuts in the entire region, adding, "We knew that there was a fire at the Bahri thermal station, which is the cause of the water cut." He explained to Al Jazeera Net that all citizens in the region began attempts to buy water by bringing "tankrat", but their efforts failed because of the difficulty of access to the region due to the security situation.

Amna Mohamed Ali, a Halfaya resident, also fears that the main market and most shops will remain closed, telling Beheira "we don't know what to do to prepare breakfast," and worries about the consequences if the closure continues, as supplies could run out in a day or two at the latest.


Near the Sports City, where armed clashes erupted, residents of the southern Khartoum al-Sahafa neighborhood are experiencing high-tension hours as skirmishes continue and shelling closes the central market for vegetables and fruits after vendors were surprised on the first day by battles erupting in front of them without warning.

Al Jazeera Net monitored the closure of a large number of bakeries in the vicinity of the market since Saturday, and exacerbated the suffering of citizens with the difficulty of moving in light of the wide military deployment and the closure of a large number of roads, as closed dozens of shops around the market and left the owners of Khartoum to neighboring towns.

Full closure of all vital centers in a suburb of the capital (Al-Jazeera)

Search for shelter

Many families in the Sahafa neighborhood said that they did not try to stock up on supplies and basic commodities because of the lack of reasons for the step before the violence surprised them, calling on the army and the "Rapid Support" to take a decision to calm down and cease fire.

Um Lina is trying to get assurances of a ceasefire and a truce announced on Sunday to be able to return to her home, as she was forced to take shelter in a family home near the central market when the fighting began and was unable to move as fighting intensified and roads were closed.

In eastern Khartoum, close to Khartoum airport and the General Command of the army, live the people of the neighborhoods of Berri, and the extension of Nasser, Riyadh, and Taif hours of terror doubled because of the intense shelling, and says Mohamed Ali, a resident of Berri – Al Jazeera Net – that their conditions are very difficult in light of the increasing tension and flying shells inside their home and tells how his children panicked and extreme fear and tries to invest the truce to move his family to where the large family resides in one of the neighborhoods of southern Khartoum as it is believed that the situation there may be Best.