Marhaba,

This is the 46th issue of Atar English, published by the Sudan Facts Center for Journalism. It reaches you every two weeks, bringing reporting from across a country still being reshaped by war.

In Khartoum, Omdurman and Wad Madani, the charge of “collaboration” has become one of the most elastic and consequential accusations of the conflict. Doctors who treated patients under occupation, civilians who remained with no means to flee, and workers tied by kinship to fighters have faced interrogation, torture, life imprisonment and death sentences. Courts are handling thousands of cases linked to wartime violations, while prisons hold thousands more accused of aiding the enemy. In this climate, staying can be recast as betrayal. Justice, under strain, risks entanglement with vengeance, rumor and digital denunciation.

Beyond Sudan’s borders, Sudanese refugees in Egypt confront another layer of insecurity. Deaths in custody, raids, deportations and tightening asylum regulations have intensified fear among those who fled seeking protection. The principle of non-refoulement, long central to refugee law, is under pressure. Many refugees describe themselves as caught between two fires, tension in exile and the violence of return.

Amid shrinking humanitarian assistance and the renewed threat of famine, solidarity networks persist. Communal kitchens, nafir labour systems and diaspora remittances form an alternative infrastructure of survival. International food aid meets only a fraction of national need. In its place, locally rooted systems of reciprocity attempt to hold communities together. They do more than target vulnerability. They reaffirm belonging and shared responsibility, suggesting that endurance in Sudan depends as much on social bonds as on formal institutions.

Further north, in Dar Mali, the gold market reveals another dimension of wartime adaptation. Among mills, assay labs and traders, commerce continues despite currency volatility and the pull of parallel exchange markets. Gold flows toward export corridors even as regulation, seizure and smuggling intersect. In this landscape, gold is not simply a commodity. It is liquidity, leverage and a site of contested authority. The market exposes how sovereignty fragments and reassembles around extraction.

East and west of the Nile, in 24 Qurashi and Umm Ruwaba, markets strive to recover under distinct pressures. In Umm Ruwaba, surveillance, damaged hinterlands and transport constraints temper a cautious revival of trade. In 24 Qurashi, traders confront layers of levies collected under security oversight, sometimes exceeding daily profits. Commerce has resumed, yet remains fragile, shaped by checkpoints, contractors and escalating costs. These markets illustrate how economic life persists, but underweight.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s financial system reflects interruption and improvisation. The war has damaged infrastructure, fragmented oversight, and accelerated reliance on digital platforms. Financial technology once promised broader inclusion and lower costs. Today, digital transactions sustain trade where cash is scarce, but access remains uneven and regulatory frameworks are incomplete. Inclusion is partial, contingent and vulnerable to further disruption.

Taken together, these reports trace a country where force operates from above, through courts, checkpoints, prisons and levies, while solidarity works from below, through kitchens, remittances, neighbourhood networks and everyday acts of care. War has redrawn not only front lines but also the moral and economic boundaries of survival. In documenting these transformations, this issue follows the threads of life across prisons and markets, gold routes and refugee corridors, digital systems and communal kitchens.

Atar Editorial Team