Every phone call I make home to Sudan is interrupted by the crackle of gunshots or an explosion in the background. This is followed by an eerie pause from the person on the other end, before one of us carries on with the conversation. Several days after the outbreak of fighting in Sudan, some people may already be treating the situation as normal. But it isn’t.
The fighting between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – Sudan’s two main military organisations – that broke out in the capital, Khartoum, on 15 April is unprecedented even given Sudan’s turbulent and violent history. While Khartoum has not escaped violence in its modern history, including an attack by a rebel group in 2008 and decades of brutal dispersals of protesters, the scale and intensity of the current fighting is previously unknown for the capital. The violence has rapidly spread across Khartoum and to other cities and regions more familiar with the horrors of war, including the restless Darfur region.
