BBC enters the burnt -down shell of capital

The battle heart of Khartoum lies a sinister quiet now, after weeks of intense urban battles in the Sudanese capital.

We entered the city just days after Sudan's army restored it from the paramilitary forces for rapid support (RSF), the culmination of a six -month offensive through the central part of the country.

After the trade heart and the Sudan government's headquarters, Khartoum has already burned a shell.

The return of the capital was a turning point in the two -year civil war that erupted from the fight for power between the army and the RSF, And it is believed to have taken at least 150,000 lives.

But – as the ID festivities spill through the streets of the capital and the people here believe that the war is over – it is not clear what direction the conflict will take on now.

We first headed to the Presidential Palace, which RSF occupied at the beginning of the war.

It was an important base for paramilitary fighters.

The floors are covered with debris and broken glass.

Chairs with pillows, once used for formal features, are covered with dust, several paintings still hang on the walls, ragged chandeliers that are stuck from the ceilings.

But almost everything else was looted – even the electrical cables were pulled out of the walls.

The oldest damage is in the front of the building, which was struck by RSF drones shortly after the army seized the palace.

The main entrance is destroyed, dried blood, still visible on the stairs, the windows are now filming holes looking over the Nile River.

“I was really excited to be in the Republican Palace,” a soldier told me as we walked the dark red carpet.

“It's been in this place for the first time and I was waiting for this place (like) Sudanese as a whole. They wanted to be free. It's a symbol of our dignity.”

It is also an important symbol of power to the army.

Soldiers sang and danced, with their fun erupted when the Muslim Id holiday began.

A local restaurant delivered a holiday for them, welcomed as heroes from many in the capital.

But their victory was won at great cost.

The level of destruction in Central Hardum is stunning: government ministries, banks and rising office blocks stand blackened and burned.

The Tormak at the International Airport is a cemetery of crushed planes, a passport and the registration counters covered with ash.

We drove slowly, weaving around unexplored ammunition along the way.

In one part of the body at the intersection they were in the Gramada, two skulls were clearly visible. About 100 m (328 feet) down the road body lay in front of a damaged car.

Stop at St. Matthew Cathedral, built by the British in 1908 and a place for worship for the Christian population of minority in the country was welcome.

The beautifully painted ceiling is intact.

A hole high in one wall showed where the shell crashed, the cross fell.

But it seemed much better than many of the buildings we saw.

A soldier who cleans ruins on the floor told us that the greater part of the damage was caused by a shrapnel by a firing around the church.

No one destroyed the “house of God,” he said, but RSF fighters deactivated the building by defective in it.

He said his son was born on the first day of the war, but because of the continued battles, he still had no chance of going home and seeing the child.

The Paramilitis also occupies the areas where diplomatic missions are located.

When the fighting began, countries and companies were confronted to evacuate the staff.

At the entrance of the British Embassy on the wall, a slogan of RSF was pulled out.

The glass, which was proven by the bullet of the building, was largely behaving, but it was full of signs of stroke.

In the parking lot from the rear fleet of vehicles is destroyed.

On the other side of the street, a flag of the United Kingdom hung over the staircase of a battered building, crushed and dirty.

This is Sudan's third civil war for 70 years, and in some way it is a worse than any of the rest – since previous conflicts are being conducted in other parts of the country.

But this one was torn through the core of Sudan, hardening divisions and threatening to divide the nation.

Further from the battle zone scattered celebrations for ID spilled into the street.

For the people here, the war is over, even though it continues elsewhere.

The army has been accused of atrocities, and reports say tens of thousands have escaped fighting in recent days. But in Hardum, people celebrated the end of the brutal occupation of RSF.

The mood was also smooth in a common kitchen in the neighborhood of Al-Great West.

“I feel like I was created again,” Osman Al Bashir said, his eyes lit up with the new reality after citing a list of the difficulties of war. He told me that he had learned his English from the BBC World Service.

Duaa Tariq is a pro -depocratic activist, part of the movement that in 2019 removed military leader Omar Al Bashir, whose authoritarian rule lasted nearly three decades.

She focuses on helping her neighborhood survive in the war.

“We have been celebrating ID for the first time in two years,” she said.

“Everyone dress, including myself! I'm overwhelmed by a lot of emotions, just as I try to learn how to live again. We feel free, we feel light, even the air smells different.”

D -Ja Tarik struggles to keep the kitchens during the war as the food is running out, the city looted by RSF, under the siege of the army and the American assistance.

The food is still scarce, but now there is hope.

“I feel great. I feel safe. I feel great, even though I'm hungry,” said an elderly man, Kasim Agra.

“You know, it doesn't matter. Freedom is important.

“As you can see, I wear a cellphone,” he said, pointing to a phone in his pocket.

“You couldn't wear a mobile phone about two weeks ago.”

This is something that many people in different parts of Khartoum have told me – mobile phones were the life line of the outside world and the main goal of stealing from RSF fighters.

Agra was optimistic that Khartoum and the country could recover.

“I think the government will lead to investors: Americans, Saudis, Canadians, Chinese, they will restore this country, I believe.”

Even if such a large -scale reconstruction is performed, it is difficult to imagine Khartoum while maintaining our various cultural and architectural characteristics.

Several women also voiced something that I have heard many times else – they can finally sleep again after they lay awake nights, fearing that RSF robbery will be pierced.

The weight of fear and loss is severe: so many stories of abuse, life, endangered and disturbed.

“Our children are injured,” Ibrahim says.

“They need psychiatrists to help them. My sister is a teacher and tried to work with the children, but that's not enough.”

D -Ja Tarik also has questions about the impact of the war: “When will the city be available again, will it open again?

“And another personal question as an activist, what will happen to all the freedoms and rights we have received in the last five years a revolution?” She asked, referring to the years that followed Bashir's expulsion when a joint civil military government worked to return to the civil government.

“How will it be again for civil society, actors, for activists, for freedom fighters? Now I'm not sure about our future.”

No one is sure of Sudan's future.

“We are praying for the people of Darfur,” said 16-year-old Hawaa Abdulshafiya, citing the Western RSF fortress, where the humanitarian crisis was the worst and where the focus of the war is expected to move.

“May God protect them.”