Khartoum: Lessons in war

7:00Mohanad Hashim:So we found an empty house. We set up a school kindergarten. We started bringing young kids together from two years old up like to nine or ten. Many people, many women helped us from different neighbourhoods. It's really worked and we'll keep going.

7:16Alex Last:These mums are part of a wider grassroots movement that became central to the survival of so many during the war. In the absence of government, in local neighbourhoods, residents came together to help each other survive. They created mutual aid groups known as emergency response rooms to provide things like food, water, medical help, and if possible, education. Dua, a local activist, was one of the key organizers here.

7:44Mohanad Hashim:So this project is an extension of everything we did during the war for the past three years during the war until now. That phase we call giving aid during the war. Now we're in a healing phase. Like Khartoum is right now healing and we are rebuilding. So the idea is to support the women and to enhance their participation in the next healing phase.

8:04Alex Last:Dua says the kindergarten also served as a way to feed local children. Because during the two years of occupation, there were acute shortages of food. Children in the capital actually died of malnutrition. They faced other horrors too. On top of the risk of shelling and drones, the RSF militia and Khartoum were accused of widespread killings, torture and rape. They raided houses, beat people, drugged others off to detention centres never to return. The mothers say drugs like weed and meth, as well as alcohol, were openly sold on tables in the street. Over time, some kids started to emulate RSF fighters, dressed like them, run a bit wild.

8:45Alex Last:And says Amna, some of their children still have behavioural issues.

8:51Mohanad Hashim:there's a large number of children who don't go to school anymore and now taking snuff and smoking cigarettes are a thing at school even among young kids my own sons were influenced by the presence of the rsf trying to copy them smoking cigarettes and they're just 11 or 12 and they have no desire for education they don't want to go to school look at me right now today I cried because my son, who's in his third year, refused to go and take his exam. Me, his father and his cousin, we all tried to convince him to sit the exam. But they just have no desire to go back to school. They don't want to be educated.

9:32Mohanad Hashim:It's not just my children. This is a problem everyone faces. All the children who survived the war, what they experienced during the war, they can't shift it. And we can't get it out of them.

9:45Alex Last:Occasionally in Khartoum there are drone attacks or explosions from unexploded ordnance that instill fear. But even everyday sounds can trigger anxiety for both parents and their children.

9:59Mohanad Hashim:My name is Salwa Nasr. I have a four-year-old son. He's so traumatised that any time he hears an aircraft, he'll jump and he'll freak out and run away. And at night he'll sit up and just stare at you and come and cling to you. so you can imagine how his younger siblings are doing too. Last night there was a blast in Buri, Khartoum North. The little kids panicked and said, we don't want to stay in the city, the war has come back again, we need to go away. They were panicking and scared. I heard it. I ran to my son. I was trying to warn my sister who came back two days ago and I had to run to my sister to comfort her so she doesn't think of leaving, so she doesn't leave me again.

10:45Mohanad Hashim:And I was triggered, but my trauma wasn't about the explosion, it was about my emotional state back then, which is missing my family, being alone.

10:54Alex Last:Shell shock is a real issue with many people within the city.

10:57Mohanad Hashim:Yeah, yeah, because in the war at that time. I was hosted by this family, yeah, so we were all living in a yard like this because there was no electricity. So usually when the shelling happens, you just try to find shelter. And sometimes in most cases... I still have this injury here from trying to run from the shelling. The drone was above, and I was trying to take shelter. I was very scared of the sound to the point that I forgot my son. I ran, and I fell. And then Diana right here, she just came. She was like, what? You left your son. You just left your son. So it's like you just have this trauma that buried, and I didn't think about when I was in the war at that time.

11:36Mohanad Hashim:but last night it was out by that explosion and I just have like this flashback of everything happened. When I talked to my neighbour that I saw the next morning, this morning, she felt the same and we started laughing about it and it went away. So this is the collective healing.

11:51Alex Last:One of the mums, Tahani, who volunteered to help run a clinic during the war, says she's noticed a change in the relationship between parents and children.

12:02Mohanad Hashim:Most of the children who come to us here have experienced a kind of split in their lives. It's as if three years of war have separated them from their mothers. I think because most of them have experienced fear, real terror, and felt their mums couldn't protect them, couldn't make them feel safe. And with some kids now, we see involuntary wetting. They wet themselves. Some exhibit extreme loneliness. You'll find children who don't want to join others, children who want to be alone. Some don't even want to eat their meals. We're trying to help them with these things.

12:39Alex Last:There are no real resources in Sudan to provide psychosocial support. Health facilities are overstretched at the best of times. Health mainly comes from families and the wider community. And adding to the stress is the fact that many are in financial trouble. The war collapsed the local economy, and the RSF also looted homes and businesses before they left. One of the mums, Sana 'a, is an engineer by training.

13:08Mohanad Hashim:Currently, people living here in the neighbourhood are unemployed, without work. There's no jobs. Why? Because most businesses and offices in the city haven't reopened, so people are really struggling. There's real poverty. People are too proud to admit it, but many can't afford to give their kids breakfast. so children are often hungry and now you see lots of school girls walking around just wearing traditional blacker buyers because their parents can't afford to pay for school uniforms.

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15:20Alex Last:I'm Mohamed Hashim on assignment in Sudan. In parts of the country still under RSF control, education remains limited at best. And though more schools have been kept open in areas controlled by the army, millions still struggle for access. And the reality is that even before the war, the education system was in a mess. It's long suffered from chronic underfunding. Teachers' salaries have fallen dramatically, while parents face a variety of fees to put their kids through education. The war made all this worse. And given the financial pressures faced by families, many older kids prefer to seek work.

16:03Alex Last:By the side of the road, we meet a group of young men just hanging out. They are all dressed in colourful T-shirts, got their bandanas, got their necklaces with different beads. Very stylishly dressed. Akram is 20 years old and he's doing his preparations for the Sudan school certificate. He's a third year senior. You should take that exam at around 17, 18.

16:34Mohanad Hashim:I was working on the main road as a mechanic, fixing motorbikes during the war in the city. But I've gone back to school, really because of pressure from my mum and the family. They said, the school is open, so you need to go back. I've been back for a year, but I want to finish as soon as possible, because I need to find work. I have a lot of responsibilities. We're all different people now.

16:59Alex Last:His friend Zakaria took a different path.

17:02Mohanad Hashim:I'm 21 years old. I finished school in 2023. I was hoping to study at the technical school as a mechanic because I love engines. I don't want to go to university. At the start of the war, I lost my brothers. They were shot by the RSF. We found them in the street. So now I've joined the army and I'm proud to serve in the Sudanese armed forces. I volunteer to protect the motherland. I want to stay in the army until we're victorious or I am martyred.

17:33Alex Last:It's not known how many youth have joined up, but both sides have been recruiting. Today, the war has militarized vast segments of Sudanese society, but still, many young people dream of a very different future.

17:46Mohanad Hashim:I want to discover something that means something to the world. We are pretty inspired by the previous scientists, the great scientists such as Albert Einstein.

17:58Alex Last:Ahmed Alhadi is a biology student at the prestigious and newly reopened University of Khartoum. For a time during the war, he lived under RSF occupation.

18:09Mohanad Hashim:It was very high. A lot of shooting. A lot of unnecessary shooting. It's all day long, 24-7. The RSFs, they are very huge militia, so they do what every criminal do. It was pretty hard for everyone in Sudan. They don't see people, citizens, as humans. They see them as low-life, like a dog. So they do some acts of humiliation. So it was tough. And there is no official jobs in the territories of the RSS. So you have to do some works like chopping wood and sell it to keep living.

18:55Alex Last:He eventually fled to territory controlled by the military, where he was able to take his high school exams and wait for the university to reopen.

19:03Mohanad Hashim:We all grew up at this war, because of this war. We witnessed some things, we knew the hardship of life. I mean, we have to know the hardships of life at some point, but we took this lesson too early.

19:19Alex Last:Before the war, there were 700 ,000 students enrolled in public and private universities across the country. and they employed 14 ,000 lecturers. During the war, many students and academics were forced to flee. Some universities managed to go online. The course is run by dedicated underpaid staff, many of whom were themselves displaced. But after recapturing the capital, the military government ordered the universities in Khartoum to reopen their campuses. Now here, they've done some repairs. Students are back and they are offering higher salaries to staff members to return. Sadiq Sharfi is a professor of civil engineering at the university who has helped reopen the campuses.

20:00Alex Last:Was there a lot of damage here in the university? Yes, sure.

20:04Mohanad Hashim:There was nothing working. You see, for all these buildings, we have renewed all glassy.

20:10Alex Last:You can see some of the brickwork smashed from mortar shells that have fell on the building.

20:16Mohanad Hashim:And we have repaired all.

20:18Alex Last:And have you cleared? Everything. Everything has been cleared. Were there mines?

20:23Mohanad Hashim:It's of unexploded mortals. We're not prepared for that.

20:29Alex Last:How did you bring this place back to life? The financial challenges...

20:34Mohanad Hashim:We had many volunteers. For example, for cleaning. We brought students from Khartoum University. They volunteered? Yes, we have almost about 1 ,000 who worked with us for weeks here for cleansing and removing the plants. We don't have money to pay them. Just food. breakfast or something like that. And they have done the same in the other campuses.

20:58Alex Last:Before the RSF left, they systematically looted the capital. Even pipes, wiring, sockets were stripped from buildings. Authorities estimate the damage to the city to be in the billions of dollars. The city's universities were ransacked too. Professor Sherfi says repairing the physical damage is relatively straightforward. The problem is all the equipment they lost.

21:21Mohanad Hashim:All buildings were robbed. Many people, they have lost their belongings in their offices. What's the value of the damage that has happened to the university and its properties? It's huge. It's huge. I cannot talk about it because we have lost many, many equipment. Just in the Faculty of Engineering, we have equipment which we bought with 26 million US dollars. Most of them are lost. That's a huge figure.

21:55Alex Last:Where that equipment ended up is a shock and a testament to the international trade in items looted in this war.

22:02Mohanad Hashim:Some of them, we found them in South Africa.

22:05Alex Last:Some of the equipment?

22:06Mohanad Hashim:Yes, because they have these tracking and license. Their licensees. License, they have to be renewed.

22:13Alex Last:So material that was looted during the war from the University of Khartoum, you tracked it all the way to South Africa? Yes. Wow. They've asked for the equipment back. In the meantime, he says, the manufacturer has agreed to remotely deactivate the license for the machine. Professor Shelfi is a practical man, an engineer in his 70s, who has worked in other countries recovering from war. He's undaunted by the task ahead. Why is it important for the university to resume so quick while half of the country is still at war?

22:49Mohanad Hashim:We don't want to lose our lecturers, professors, fairests. We don't want to lose our students. Secondly, we want them to work hard to participate in the development of the countries. Sudan has passed through many civil wars. In South Sudan for 70 years, in Darfur for the last 15 years. So the war is not the end of those things. People can work under stress, people can make development. You can see now the farmers are working and everyone is working.

23:24Alex Last:And when he looks at his students, despite what's happened, he thinks they are doing well and will thrive.

23:30Mohanad Hashim:We talked to them. They became mature, serious, to compensate for the time they have lost in life in general. When you feel that you are useful, you enjoy your life. But if you feel that you are not useful, you will be demoralized. So we want our students to feel that they are useful because studying is work also, and it's preparing these generations for the future.

23:57Alex Last:During the war, the University of Khartoum did keep teaching online and continued to graduate some students. But there's a backlog of those studying practical subjects, especially the ones that require lab work. So now they are running intensive courses to help older students to catch up, as well as managing a fresh intake of high school graduates.

24:20Alex Last:It's a nice feeling. I didn't really expect to get into Khartoum University. And hopefully I'll do something that makes people really proud. Mohamed Mu'tasim is studying biology. He was displaced by the fighting and has waited two years to go to university. He's so happy to be here, but says it's not been easy.

24:42Mohanad Hashim:When I was a student at school, I used to get the highest grades. Because of the war, things got messy. I can't study or focus. I can't keep up like before. Since the war, I've had to take on a lot of responsibilities. My father was ill. I had to work and look after the family finances. I became somebody who has bills to pay. I became somebody with debts.

25:06Alex Last:I mean, do you think the world has changed you?

25:10Mohanad Hashim:It has totally changed me. I used to be somebody who jokes a lot and has fun. I became a serious person. I now realise how my father struggled, so he could afford my education. Now, when I study, I really appreciate my father's effort. I study more so that what he spent on me does not go to waste.

25:32Alex Last:I want him to be proud of me. He's not the only one finding it hard.

25:39Mohanad Hashim:I'm very happy to be back in education after two years, but we are struggling to absorb things. We cannot concentrate. It's tricky. It's taking time for subjects to stick in our head.

25:51Alex Last:Tertila Nazir is a first-year economic student. She and her family first fled Khartoum for the countryside, but were forced to move again when the RSF closed in. Terrified, they drove on back roads across the desert for a week to seek safety. She graduated school in 2023. So she too has been waiting two years to start at university.

26:15Mohanad Hashim:In the past two years, we didn't do any studying. We didn't exercise our brains. Our minds were just empty. We were in a bad way. So this is new. It's hard. But we will get used to it.

26:28Alex Last:Among the staff here, there are many who are aware of both the academic and emotional stress students are experiencing.

26:35Mohanad Hashim:We are trying our best. You can see there's some kind of reciprocation, but still there is more to be done.

26:45Alex Last:The challenge is big.

26:47Mohanad Hashim:Yeah.

26:47Alex Last:After class, we met Hiba, a scientist and a teacher assistant at the University of Khartoum. What is your experience? What sort of problems are students struggling with?

26:58Mohanad Hashim:Even if the door slams, you can see he's out of focus for the rest of the day. Then you are starting to calm them down. If something like that happens, the whole day is ruined.

27:13Alex Last:If a door is slammed, it could be as simple as that.

27:16Mohanad Hashim:Yes, yes.

27:17Alex Last:Hebez got a rare holistic view of the impact of the war on Sudan's youth. During the battle for the capital, she remained in the city, in an area that was under the army's control. She joined a mutual aid group, worked at the first aid post and the communal kitchen. And she volunteered to teach kids while the schools were shut. I taught science, math, English, sometimes Arabic also.

27:43Mohanad Hashim:From ages of four to 16, 18, to faculty students. But there was no appetite for education at all. Because people are losing their families, so there is no interest in education. Most of them, like, my parents forced me to come, and that's what I'm doing. That's all. That's all. But we were trying to reignite the light, I guess.

28:13Alex Last:And, I mean, now do you feel that this light has been reignited? It's better than before. It's a lot better than before.

28:22Mohanad Hashim:But there is still, yeah, even them playing is more violent, which is a big problem. Even the humor is about fights and violence and killing. You miss the innocence of the play. We need a lot of mental work. Yes, but it's not available. So it's more like families helping each other, friends. Those who are able to come past that difficult time together, most know.

28:57Alex Last:Not everyone is affected by trauma, but millions have still had their world turned upside down, lost opportunities. So many young people here are desperate to learn, to catch up, to get on with their lives. It will be hard to measure the true cost of this war on the youth here, but given that the population is so young, the damage could be felt for years to come. And if Khartoum is bad, it'll surely be much, much worse in more remote war-torn areas where education remains on hold for millions of kids. Without peace and real investment in Sudan's youth, the costs will keep accumulating. In the meantime, it's left to parents and teachers, to community volunteers, to people like Hiba to mitigate the damage.

29:42Alex Last:And they at least have shown they will sacrifice a lot to give children a chance.

29:48Mohanad Hashim:For me, despite what's happening now, there are a lot of resources, good resources. It can be fixed, but a lot of things are not helping. If there's any improvement, mostly it's civil actions, local organizations.

30:08Alex Last:How do you feel about the future? The Sudanese people, did they think they will be able to rise from this burden of this war? Maybe. Maybe.

30:25Mohanad Hashim:I don't know.