Return to Khartoum: War, loss and hope

This powerful episode of The Documentary Podcast takes listeners on a journey back to Khartoum, Sudan, one year after government forces recaptured the war-ravaged capital from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Journalist Mohamed Hashim returns to a city reduced to rubble, where shrapnel-scarred buildings, unexploded ordnance, and looted homes bear witness to a brutal conflict that began in 2023. The war, rooted in a 2018 uprising against longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir and the subsequent rise of the RSF, has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. Through intimate interviews with survivors like Dua, a pro-democracy activist and mother who stayed behind to organize community emergency response rooms, and Abdu, a student who endured a siege in Al-Ubayid, the episode reveals the profound human cost—systematic violence, sexual abuse, starvation, and the loss of identity. Yet amid the devastation, there are sparks of hope: returning residents clearing mines, rebuilding homes, reopening schools, and reclaiming simple joys like walking freely, drinking tea, and seeing light for the first time. The episode underscores how ordinary Sudanese citizens, especially women and youth, became the backbone of survival and resilience, proving that community-led healing may be the foundation for Sudan’s future. Despite ongoing conflict and regional power struggles, the spirit of collective rebuilding offers a vision of a Sudan rebuilt from the ground up.