Protests turn neighborhoods in Khartoum into closed war zones

Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum

It was more like a war zone, with barricades closing all the streets and the blackness covered by the fires, while the walls covered the slogans of the revolution and its drawings.

The suspicion of every stranger enters the place, the suspicion of suspicion surrounds him, and perhaps the young people to ask you about your destination as you ditch into the neighborhood. Start with a lukewarm and cautious peace before they warmly welcome you and show you on your destination after your identity is confirmed.

Protesters have turned a long life in Khartoum into a kind of closed-door area where they go and march whenever the pro-reform rally calls for the president to step down.

Three neighborhoods in Khartoum's three cities have been akin to the terror triangle of the security services since the protests began last December. The Berri district in Khartoum and Abbasiya in Omdurman and Shambat in Khartoum have become centers that feed the movement without interruption.

Great exhibition
Anyone who walks through the streets of the Hadarab district in Shambat is walking around in a large exhibition. The famous months of protests in Sudan are "falling off", in addition to the slogans of the revolutionaries circulating.

Shambat is home to more than 40,000 people. It is located 8.5 kilometers north of downtown Khartoum. The name of the hushrab is attributed to an ancient family in the suburb belonging to a cleric named Hazrat.

Significantly, the slogans were not hastily written, but carefully painted alongside them illustrations of the victims who fell during the protests, especially the image of Saleh Abdul Wahab, who fell on 9 January in a demonstration in Omdurman.

Al Jazeera Net Five young men, three female housewives and a stenya man met inside a house in the old neighborhood of Shambat. One of the youths was coming to them for insurance, until the session was completed and they began to tell their stories with two months of protests.

Monitor and navigate
"From Shambab's income he is safe," a phrase proudly echoed by young people, who say they have gained experience in organizing and protecting protests since the September 2013 protests and before Friday's "sense of the elbow."

One young man says that the cohesive fabric of the neighborhood as well as the houses connected to each other make it much easier to secure the processions organized within Shambat, although many young men and women come from other parts of Khartoum, but each must have a well-known entrance.

Before the processions begin, young people divide tasks between observation and monitoring and building barricades, while other groups check with anyone entering the area, and sometimes even to the point of inspection if there is a growing suspicion about someone.

The young man adds that their insurance methods have reduced the victims of the arrests. Last Thursday, the most challenging day of the arrests was the arrest of three young men because of the lack of barricades.

Street barricades
Police-driven bulldozers have to reach the neighborhood before each motorcade to open the streets and remove rubble, so as to facilitate the movement of SUVs of regular forces.

According to another young man, the neighborhood is now experiencing a severe shortage of rubble that they use to make barricades after nearly two months of protests. "Last Thursday we had to move blocks of concrete and brick from an old house that was demolished," he said.

The terminology used by young people in characterizing demonstration methods and methods was closer to the language used by law enforcement agencies, such as "attacking force, monitoring, surveillance and insurance".

Most of the youths were injured by tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, batons, and even hand grenades.

Housewives
Housewives are more comfortable after the security forces stopped firing bullets, as one of them said. "Praise be to Allah, bullets and death are stopped. Tear gas is hot. Our houses and our hearts are open to the rebels until they fall."

She adds that she is addicted to demonstrations, and whenever young people ask them about the date of the procession, and points to her feet saying that she is always ready to wear light shoes to participate in the protests.

Ms. S., one of the most enthusiastic housewives in the neighborhood, told Al-Jazeera Net that she supports youth protests because their future is just a crisis and they have to change the regime.

She stresses that she and all the women in the neighborhood are keen to secure the protesters and provide food, juices and shelter to them, especially for those who come from outside the neighborhood, a first protection "as long as they came to us we will not let them down."

Although the homes that shelter the protesters were damaged when the neighborhood was invaded, she said that all the houses were safe from the damage they were causing. She remembered that the hall where we were sitting and an adjacent room was filled with about fifty young men and women in the Thursday procession.

Although there is a link between the neighborhoods of Shambat, Abbasiyah and Bari, it is the legacy and cohesion of the social fabric, which made it difficult to strip the security authorities, which lost a number of vehicles and trying to hold the protesters between the alleys and fields.