Perched on the roof of a building whose railing was blown off by a projectile, Kamaleddine Al-Nour watches plumes of black smoke rise into the sky above the northern suburbs of Khartoum. There, in the Bahri district where he was born, clashes are taking place between soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces (FAS), with whom the world obtained permission to travel to the country – and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Control of the Sudanese capital is at stake. With the sun setting, missiles fall on buildings, blurring the horizon with a dark cloud.
Three years ago, perched on the barricades erected in the streets of Bahri, this young revolutionary set fire to tires to protest against the coup led jointly by generals Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane and Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti.” , on October 25. 2021. By overthrowing the civilian government, the two officers, still allies, put an end to the democratic transition that began after the 2019 revolution against the military-Islamist regime of Omar Al-Bashir.
Moments after the coup was announced, a general strike was announced in factories and civil disobedience was encouraged from the minarets of mosques. All generations together, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese took to the streets of the country every week to block the way to a new military regime. At the head of the procession, Kamaleddine Al-Nour and his family, the gadiboon (literally “angry” in Arabic), formed the spearhead of the demonstrations.
Masked, armed with metal shields and construction helmets, they confronted the junta soldiers with stones, who fired live ammunition into the crowd. Three years later, the gadiboon They have very short hair, wear khaki uniforms and roam the front lines of the Sudanese capital, with a machine gun on their shoulders. Since the start of the war between Al-Bourhane’s FAS and “Hemetti’s” RSF, on April 15, 2023, they have chosen their side. They are fighting alongside the Sudanese army.
“Today we face an existential war. The RSF endangers the unity of Sudan. War risks disintegrating our society and everything we hold dear. “Then we take up arms.”justifies Kamaleddine Al-Nour, who joined the FAS training camps a few months ago. “In demonstrations or on the battlefield, we have been shedding our blood for the country for a long time. We defend our people. In this way, war is the continuation of revolution.says.
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