I fell asleep after a long Ramadan night in 2023. A few hours earlier, I’d broken my fast with my girlfriend, who would later become my wife, at a restaurant in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. We had then headed to Nile Street, which runs along the Blue Nile, to sit with others in an open-air cafe. A common Sudanese phenomenon during Ramadan, the women running the café had arranged plastic chairs in a circle and were serving tea and coffee from the centre.
We chatted about love and politics – political discussions run like blood through the veins of ordinary life in Sudan, especially after the December 2018 revolution. The revolution had given us a reason to believe that political change was on its way, especially since it resulted in the formation of a civilian government. We felt immense hope, yet also frustration at the significant challenges facing the movement. We knew that many, especially those in the former Islamic regime, were waiting for a chance to strike back.
That Ramadan night, we were particularly worried about the potential outbreak of war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Yet we clung to the hope of a political miracle. At the end of the night, my girlfriend and I went our separate ways. We woke up the next morning to the sounds of explosions and warplanes.
