Barbara Pleidasha
Appearances
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
We're going over the bridge now into central Khartoum, just days after the army recaptured the city from the rapid support forces. We'll be driving straight to the presidential palace, which the RSF occupied for nearly two years. The palace is damaged and dirty. There's dust everywhere, debris on the floors, holes in the ceiling, holes in the wall, broken glass, looted.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Even the electric cables have been pulled out of the walls, although still some of the chandeliers are hanging from the ceiling.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
So this is the red carpet. We're walking into the palace. What did you think when you first came into the palace?
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
It's also an important symbol of power. Soldiers here sang and danced, their jubilation erupting as the Muslim Eid holiday began. But their victory came at enormous cost. Central Khartoum is a battered shell. The level of destruction is stunning. Government ministries, banks, towering office blocks, blackened and burned. The tarmac at the international airport, a graveyard of smashed planes.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Further away from the combat zone, scattered celebrations for the Eid holiday spill into the street. For people here, the war is over, even though it continues elsewhere. The army's been accused of atrocities, and reports say tens of thousands fled the fighting here in recent days. But in Khartoum, people celebrate the end of the brutal RSF occupation.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Duhat Tariq is a pro-democracy activist, part of the movement that toppled the former military leader Omar al-Bashir. She's been focusing on helping her neighbourhood survive the war.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
She struggled to keep soup kitchens running during the war as food ran out, the city looted by the RSF and under siege by the army. Food is still scarce, but there's hope now, says an elderly man, Qasem Agar.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Still, the weight of fear and loss is heavy. So many stories of abuse by RSF fighters, of life endangered and disrupted. Our children are traumatized, says Najwa Ibrahim. They need psychiatrists to help them. My sister's a teacher and tried to work with them, but it's not enough.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
For the soldiers at the palace, for the army, regaining the capital feels like a turning point in the country's civil war. But it's not clear what direction Sudan will take.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
It has shifted the balance of power that had evolved after the beginning of the war, because when the war began, the RSF moved quite quickly, first of all, to take the capital, which was extraordinary. And the retaking of Khartoum followed an advance by the army through central Sudan, retaking that area and then coming up to Khartoum.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
So in a way, it's the culmination of really pushing back the RSF. back into its traditional stronghold. And now the question is, what will the army do? It's expected that it will refocus and shift towards Darfur. The reality that has been created more and more is different zones of control.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
So one of the things that could happen is a concern that the nation would split, that there would be de facto partition, which is quite a serious thing.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Well, it's a very serious question because you remember there was the revolution, the pro-democracy revolution in 2019 that led to the toppling of the military leader Omar al-Bashir. And then there were civilians working together with military leaders, by the way, the military leaders which then turned on each other and started the civil war.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
But there was a progression towards trying to get at least some sort of civilian government back in power. Now, I have to say, again, something that's really struck me on several visits here, the society has become really militarized. The soldiers are heroes. Little boys are taking pictures holding guns. It's really quite striking. And so I think that is a little bit the concern was expressed.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
We did fight for all these freedoms for civilian free expression and so on. But what's going to happen now? I mean, what are the chances of returning a civilian government in the way that they were trying to do before? That is a real question for the pro-democracy activists and for other Sudanese as well.