Al -Jazeera Net Correspondents
Khartoum- In a scene that reflects the steadfastness of the residents of the Halfaya neighborhood, north of the city of Bahri, in the capital Khartoum The headmaster of the mother school in the neighborhood, Ahlam Abdullah, began his wounds after the loss of her only son who was shot. Rapid support forces.
Ahlam wore her white garment and returned to her work, with the resumption of study at school with popular efforts after hundreds of families returned to the neighborhood in recent weeks.
The Rapid Support Forces took control of most of the Khartoum Bahri neighborhoods in the early days of the outbreak of the war with Sudanese army Mid -April 2023, before the army regained control of it with a military operation on September 26.
Schools open their doors again
Ahlam confirms in her interview with Al -Jazeera Net that the school received students from the three stages, and dozens returned to the seats of the study, while students of the secondary and middle schools presented the exams, and a batch of primary school students prepare for their exams in September.
And she points out that the situation in the school has become relatively stable, with the availability of electricity and water, the return of the health center to work, and the increasing number of students in conjunction with the return of many families.
At the entrance to the neighborhood, the road leads you to Professor Aoun Al -Sharif Qasim, one of the most prominent landmarks of Halfaya, where the banner of his partially destroyed house due to the war is still hanging on its wall.
While the movement of returnees to the neighborhood increases from inside Sudan Outside, the living challenges are exacerbated with the continued power and water outages frequently and the absence of job opportunities, which prompted many to rely on expatriate transfers to meet the costs of daily life.
Survival security and dignity recovered
“We have hesitated our dignity and security returned to us,” with these words, through Haitham Hassan Babiker – who is one of the residents of the neighborhood – his feelings after the rapid support forces left.
Babiker tells Al -Jazeera Net that he did not leave the Halfaya throughout the war, which he described as “very harsh”, pointing to the severe suffering he lived in searching for food, and a complete interruption of electricity and water, as well as repeated violations by the Rapid Support Forces.
“The militia’s exit from the neighborhood was tantamount to the return of the soul to the body,” he added.
For more than two years, Babiker and his family relied on legumes and the transfers of his expatriate relatives in securing food, a situation in which many of the Halfaya residents live today, and he says that the situation is relatively improved after families return to their homes.
He pointed out that the street in which only 4 families lived during the war, all of its residents returned to it recently, thanks to the improvement of security and the partial return of basic services such as electricity and water that are currently pumped through popular initiatives, in addition to the resumption of the health center its work despite the lack of medicines, while critical cases are transferred to Omdurman city hospitals.
Markets are back to life
In the Halfaya market, life gradually returned with the availability of basic commodities and bakeries to work, which increased the demand for purchase.
Yass Abdel Mahmoud told Al -Jazeera Net – a merchant who opened his shop only 10 days ago – that the demand for purchase is constantly increasing thanks to the return of families and the improvement of services relatively, especially the treatment and the opening of a large number of pharmacies.
However, the owner of the wheat mill, Muhammad Ali Ibrahim, believes that the sales movement is still weak due to the lack of liquidity in the hands of citizens despite the return of large numbers of the neighborhood residents, especially from Egypt and the various Sudanese states, but the majority “is happy with the return of security and stability”, as he put it.
The International Organization for Immigration announced the return of about 27,000 Sudanese from Egypt last June, according to the organization’s “Matif Football Matters” teams.
Estimates indicate the increase in the return movement from Egypt to Sudan during July, at a time when the service conditions in Khartoum are still difficult.
Despite the great challenges faced by returnees – especially in terms of basic services – the pace of return to the capital is continuing at an escalating pace with hope in improving conditions and gradually restoring normal life.