A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Sudan's capital city of Khartoum has been systematically destroyed. The once vibrant city at the junction of the White and Blue Nile has been hollowed out after two years of Civil War.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The conflict between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, started in Khartoum. Then, over a month ago, in a major shift, the city was liberated by the Sudanese army. Now, for the first time, the outside world is getting a glimpse of what has been left behind. NPR is one of the few Western news outlets that's made it into Khartoum.
MARTÍNEZ: With us now is NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu, who has just returned from there and joins us now from the de facto capital of Port Sudan. So tell us, Emmanuel, what you saw as you traveled through Khartoum.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Good morning. It's utterly devastating and surreal. I mean, before Khartoum became the center of the war, this was a really vibrant, proud, historic city - over 6 million people. But then two years of war between these two former allies, and then occupation by the Rapid Support Forces until just the last month, really has left the city emptied - almost eerie. Swaths of it are torched, damaged, destroyed by artillery and gunfire. And this is from everyday areas to the presidential palace, to hospitals, schools, museums. Even the airport has been burnt to a crisp.
Before the RSF were forced out of Khartoum, they stripped the city almost like locusts - you know, looting it to a degree that's honestly just really hard to grasp. And that's from the National Museum, where they took tens of thousands of ancient artifacts, and even down to electric wires ripped from the walls in almost every building that they occupied, and they stripped them for copper. And the city is without power. There's a shortage of water, virtually no state services, although they're gradually returning.
MARTÍNEZ: So if the city is missing power, shortage of water - I mean, basic services - I mean, can people return?
AKINWOTU: Well, there are tractors at the moment clearing debris, teams of sweepers cleaning the streets, and they're still finding unexploded bombs and human remains. But you're right - it's mostly uninhabitable. There's a trickle of people returning, but mainly to find out or confront what's happened to their property and their belongings. We went to a bakery and spoke to the owner, Yusuf Aldy.
YUSUF ALDY: (Speaking Arabic).
AKINWOTU: He said the RSF looted his home above the shop. And they lived there, and for a period, they even kept the bakery open and ran it like it was their own business.
MARTÍNEZ: Emmanuel, also wondering about what you may have witnessed around the humanitarian crisis. I mean, the United Nations says Sudan is experiencing the worst famine anywhere in the world in decades.
AKINWOTU: Yes, it's unprecedented. We visited the Al-Buluk hospital, which is the main and largest pediatric health facility in the Khartoum State region. The wards were packed with malnourished children. The hospital's expanded again and again through the war, but it's still overwhelmed. I spoke to the lead doctor, Ahmed Holoji (ph).
AHMED KHOLODJI: At the beginning of January 1, 2024, we served, like, 4,000 patients per month. Now it's 30,000 to 36,000 per month.
AKINWOTU: So the fighting has stopped in Khartoum, but the toll of the war is really just coming to the surface. And, of course, the fighting continues.
MARTÍNEZ: Tell us about where the fighting has shifted.
AKINWOTU: Well, it's shifted to the outskirts of the capital region and has become really intense towards the western region of Darfur, which is overwhelmingly controlled by the RSF. It's where there was a genocide 20 years ago by Arab militias that evolved into the RSF against African ethnic groups. And it's happening again now, according to the U.N., U.S. and others.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu in Sudan. Thank you very much.
AKINWOTU: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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