Khartoum

By Mohamed Vall in Africa on July 8th, 2011
Daniel Majak

Daniel Majak is a character to remember.

When we drove into the Gabarouna slum for displaced southerners outside Khartoum, Majak was the first person to emerge from the ruins of a mudhouse.

Frail and shabby and dejected … and seemingly out of a chronic famine – and yet Daniel is noble in spirit, hospitable by nature, easy going in character and ready to go out of his way to smile to us and to help us - a foreign crew who suddenly invaded his little world of ruins outside the town.

We walked around under the scorching July sun as he showed us a mound of mud and the remnants of a bathroom.

“This was my house” he said, “they destroyed it because it had no legal papers”.

During the early years of the civil war hundreds of thousands of southerners fled the south and chaotically lived around Khartoum.

Many like Daniel came here as children and grew up in utter destitution. Most of them did not go to a school.

By Fatma Naib in Africa on January 18th, 2011
Photo by Fatma Naib

The journey into Darfur started at the break of dawn. I was greeted at the UN airport in Khartoum by personnel who ensured I made it onto the plane.


As we waited in the freezing cold in the open air waiting area, I started to observe the truly international faces around me - Ethiopians, Nigerians and Bulgarians. 

The plane finally arrived. An hour and a half later, the captain announced that we were in Al Fashir, Darfur.

By Fatma Naib in Africa on January 15th, 2011
Photos by Fatma Naib

The week long voting has come to an end and Sudan is preparing for a new chapter of its history. The birth of the world's newest nation is almost certain. The final results that seem to be leaning towards separation will be announced in a few weeks. People in the South have already started to celebrate, but not everyone is rejoicing, as people have mixed emotions about the impact this will have on their lives.

The question of citizenship has been flagged as one of the potential flash points of the referendum. President Omar al Bashir made it clear that no dual citizenship will be allowed. So southerners that would remain here will do so as foreigners.

By Fatma Naib in Africa on January 2nd, 2011
The daughter of Sudan's first president (R) shares the family history [Photos by Fatma Naib]

A day after Sudan marked the 55th anniversary of its independence from British ruling, Jalaa al-Azhari, the daughter of Sudan's first president Ismali al-Azhari, marked the event by half raising the flag. A sign of sadness at the state of the nation in the light of the looming referendum that could see Africa's largest country split in two halves.

As I entered the big former presidential building, I looked up to see the old Sudanese flag with the green, yellow and black colours raised in half. I sensed the somber atmosphere as I looked around the courtyard that had big banners with her father's pictures on the flag with the slogan: A nation that includes everyone.

As the team arrived at the house, kindergarden children started arriving to pay their respect to the first president of Sudan, seeing them diffused the sad mood, it was a moment that exhumed innocence.

By Fatma Naib in Africa on December 31st, 2010

As Sudan readies for the new year, it will not be the only thing the largest African country of more than 40 million people will be celebrating over the next few days.

January 1 marks the official independence day of Sudan when the nation first raised its official flag in 1956.

But the celebrations this year are being approached with mixed feelings.

Sudan is preparing for a referendum vote, a result of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a 22-year civil war, which left two million people dead and many others displaced.

The results of the vote could see the country split in two, which many believe is a likely outcome, leading to the creation of the world's newest country.

Upon my arrival in Khartoum, I not only noticed the numerous posters welcoming the new year, but also many about the importance of a unified Sudan, and the colourful flags displayed in most places.

One government poster read: "Our strength is in our unity

By Mohamed Vall in Africa on December 8th, 2010
Photo by EPA

"Sudan is four countries ... No, no Sudan should be just one...," the voice of the local singer in a southern language came loud and noisy from the old tape recorder next to Sonta as she sat sweating in the searing sun at the make shift bus-station in Amarat district in southern Khartoum.

The 20-year-old woman from Warrap state and her cousin were sitting on a heap of old furniture along with hundreds of other southerners, waiting to be transported to southern Sudan.

They have left their homes around Khartoum and they have been here for nearly a week waiting for the buses to come.

A one-year-old baby girl with a dusty face and shabby clothes was nibbling at a poorly baked portion of flour soaked in meat sauce.

It's very clear that these people have been suffering for years and that they are now taking serious troubles to go back to their ancestral homeland.

By Mohamed Vall in Africa on December 1st, 2010
Photo by EPA

Amid the good news of a smooth and peaceful voter registration process in Sudan ahead of the January 9 referendum in the south, an issue of major concern went almost unnoticed.

No single person in the flashpoint region of Abyei has registered yet for the other referendum on the future of that region.

Abyei remained in limbo. Negotiations between north and south leaderships about solutions are leading nowhere so far.

The Southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement has launched a massive return campaign for Abyei citizens exiled in Khartoum.

But on the ground the status quo remains as it was since the summer of 2008 when the two armies clashed and the main capital town of Abiey went on fire.

By Hoda Abdel-Hamid in Africa on November 30th, 2010
Picture by AFP

If you drive around Khartoum, one can easily forget that soon there is a referendum that could change the borders of Sudan forever.

Apart for a couple of street banners calling for one Sudan, there is a feeling that northerners have collectively given up on the idea of unity.

"And for good reason," says our taxi driver Abdel Rahman. "The government hasn't done anything for them to want to remain with us, now it's too late to talk about unity. They had 5 years, they just woke up a month ago."

Rahman however doubts about the viability of a southern independent state "there is nothing down there," he says "but if they want to split, let it be".

According to the latest population census, 500,000 southerners live in the north.

By Anita McNaught in Africa on November 27th, 2010
Photo by Anita McNaught

The Sudanese authorities are "careful" with foreign press. And – returning the favour – we are fastidiously careful back.

Visas to enter, a permit to be there, a third to practise the job. A licence for camera equipment and a Ministry of Information "meeter-&-greeter" at the airport to expedite its thorough inspection.

Then you apply for another permit to fly south to the areas controlled by the GOSS – Government of Southern Sudan – and, after a day or two, the Khartoum government office usually says: "Yes". 

And you get a generous glass of sweet tea while the paperwork passes from desk to desk.

It wasn't always like this.

Filming or writing about the fighting in the south could get you blacklisted by Khartoum. But these days the southern struggle is internationally legitimised, and the country poised on the brink of a messy and very public divorce.

Khartoum seems to be resigned to the world's curiosity.

By Fatma Naib in Africa on May 17th, 2010
Photos by Fatma Naib

The power struggle between Hassan al-Turabi, the Sudanese opposition politician, and his former ally Omar al-Bashir, the country's president, shows no signs of ending.

If anything, it could well be intensifying, judging by the late-night arrest on Saturday of al-Turabi.

He has been in and out of custody during his political career - one marked by remarkable shifts in allegiances.

In the last few years, while in the opposition, al-Turabi has been imprisoned or held under house arrest on several occasions.

His relationship with al-Bashir was, of course, not always antagonistic.

Indeed, they were very close in the past: al-Turabi was one of al-Bashir's most trusted advisers when the latter seized power in 1989.

Al-Turabi was then the chairman of al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP).

But the two split over the introduction of a bill to limit the president's powers in 1999, a move which al-Bashir countered by dissolvi

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