A deserted street in southern Khartoum during a ceasefire last month. AFP
A deserted street in southern Khartoum during a ceasefire last month. AFP
A deserted street in southern Khartoum during a ceasefire last month. AFP
A deserted street in southern Khartoum during a ceasefire last month. AFP

Drivers tell of gunpoint carjackings in 'lawless' Khartoum


Nada AlTaher
  • English
  • Arabic

Dr Mohammad, a paediatrician in the Sudanese city of Omdurman, no longer drives his car, preferring to walk instead for his own safety.

The decision came after a man was shot and killed across the street from his hospital “by armed men who stole the man's belongings, including his car”, he said.

Residents say such incidents have become common in the two months since fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and the adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri.

More than 866 have been killed and at least 6,000 injured, the Ministry of Health's latest figures show.

Hundreds of thousands have fled to other parts of Sudan or to neighbouring countries amid the fighting and mass looting of homes, vehicles, shops, banks, embassies and international organisations.

Dr Mohammad, whose last name has been withheld for his own safety, is one of the few paediatricians left in the city.

He said the man shot near his hospital was a new father who had gone out to get milk and other supplies for his baby, born after eight years of trying to have a child.

“It was devastating,” he said.

Gasim Oshi, from the Beit Al Mal neighbourhood of Omdurman, said he had witnessed “all types of atrocities”.

“Our neighbourhood was fully occupied by the RSF because of its strategic location near the national radio and television station and the police headquarters,” said Mr Oshi, who sought safety in the city of Wad Madani, about 140km away, 46 days after fighting began.

A looted petrol station in southern Khartoum. AFP
A looted petrol station in southern Khartoum. AFP

“People were shot for seemingly no reason. We stopped using our car to get groceries because the possibility of being stopped by armed forces and being threatened into handing over belongings, including cars, is very high.”

Mr Oshi said a neighbour living in Saudi Arabia asked Mr Oshi and a friend to go to his house to deflate the tyres of one of his cars and drive the other to a safe location.

“So we did,” he said. “But two days later, my friend was driving the man's car and was stopped on the street by armed men.

“They tried to take the car and when he tried to negotiate with them, they began firing live ammunition in the air and near his feet.”

A few days later, Mr Oshi discovered that even the car with the deflated tyres had been towed away.

“They are first-class thieves,” he said.

'Spoils of war'

A Khartoum-based Facebook group called Lost and Found is mostly filled with pictures of missing vehicles. On May 28, the group's founder, Mohamed El Sheikh, posted the license plates of two Hyundai Accent cars that had gone missing.

On June 9, the RSF posted a video of their forces “combing the streets of Al Yarmouk” in south Khartoum. Two minutes and 42 seconds in, one of the missing cars is shown.

A screengrab from the RSF video showing the stolen car
A screengrab from the RSF video showing the stolen car

Norwegian Refugee Council worker Ahmed Omer told The National that his family had to leave their car behind when escaping, choosing instead to make the gruelling trip to the Egyptian border by public transport. Many who have left their homes and cars behind have presumed their belongings stolen.

“It was too dangerous to take the car,” he said. “Now the car is left behind in our old neighbourhood. It has most likely been stolen by now as the area is taken over by armed groups.”

Earlier this month, a self-proclaimed RSF member said on Twitter that the group considered homes and vehicles “spoils of war” that serve a “higher cause”.

The alleged fighter's Twitter account has since been taken down.

Haemoglobin disorders explained

Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.

Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.

The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.

The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.

A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

 

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Updated: June 14, 2023, 10:44 AM