Image source: Khaled DESOUKI / AFP via Getty Images)
If you live in a stable region that does not witness wars or armed conflicts, and where electricity and water services are normally available, these tools may seem to you to be just memories of the past.
But in Sudan, these tools have returned to the forefront, transforming from traditional legacies into means of adapting to the living conditions imposed by the war more than three years ago.
Sudanese women have once again resorted to the "mshalaib", a traditional utensil used to preserve and cool food, and to the "charcoal iron" that grandmothers used before the spread of electric irons, following the targeting of 15 electrical installations in different areas of the country, during the period from last October 20 to the first of this November, which led to a power outage in large areas of the country.
Thus, power outages in Sudan are no longer just hours of darkness that residents wait for to end, but rather have turned into a harsh daily reality that drives them to search for primitive and arduous alternatives, but it has become a necessity to continue life in the absence of electricity. This crisis is worsening day after day with increasing attacks on the country's electricity infrastructure.
The cruelty of this reality is embodied in what a woman from the city of Kadugli told the “Middle East Diary” program broadcast on BBC Radio, saying: “The war has done to us what it has done. Until recently, we were blessed with electricity, and a refrigerator in which we kept our food and drink.”>
“But today, with the power outage due to the targeting of its stations, we were forced to return to Al-Mushlaib, as our grandfathers used to do. Through Al-Mushlaib, the food is raised high, which provides it with a temperature that helps protect it from spoilage, and also protects it from insects and animals that have begun to plague us in the dark.”
The woman continues, "The matter is not limited to food only. Even drinking cold water has become an unattainable dream due to the power outage and our inability to operate the refrigerators. So we also resorted to what our grandparents used to do, which is pouring water into an aluminum tray, and raising it in the air, as this method helps to gradually lower its temperature."
The suffering does not stop at the borders of water and drink, but rather extends to the simplest details of the modern era. Even charging mobile phones has become a very primitive practice in Sudan.
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A citizen from Al-Obeid narrates part of this suffering, saying: “Charging phones now requires us to go to areas where electric generators, or what are known locally as generators, are available, which in turn depend on fuel to operate, and the cost of fuel rose as the crisis worsened, as the price of a container of gas reached 600,000 Sudanese pounds, equivalent to approximately 60 US dollars.”
She went on to say: "This increase was directly reflected in the cost of charging phones, which rose from a previous thousand Sudanese pounds to two thousand, while the cost of charging chargers reaches five thousand Sudanese pounds per time."
From El Obeid to Tawila, where the specter of the water crisis caused by the power outage extends; One citizen sadly described the scene of survival by saying: “Due to the power outage and our inability to operate water engines, we have to travel distances estimated at kilometers on foot to fill barrels of potable water, and drink from it directly without exposing it to any means of cooling, no matter how high the temperature.”
The power outage, along with all means of ventilation, and the resulting severe water outage, prompted citizens to use primitive methods to cool their bodies, especially with the extreme high temperatures for which Sudan is famous.
In Khartoum, the situation was not much different; The repercussions of the power outage spread, forcing people to devise alternative means of preserving food, after refrigerators were completely out of service.
A woman from Khartoum says: “With the power outage, it is no longer possible to prepare food to last for two days, for example, as we used to do before. If there is some food left, we have to heat it every two hours to preserve it for the next day. As for meat, we have to cut it to dry and preserve it.”
Drone attacks targeted electricity substations in the cities of Aruma and New Halfa in eastern Sudan early last Monday, leading to a widespread power outage throughout Kassala State, according to local sources.
This brings the number of energy facilities that were subjected to drone attacks in Sudan during the past week to 15. Similar incidents were recorded in the states of Khartoum, Gezira, Sennar, Red Sea, Gedaref, Kassala, and River Nile.
These and other stories were broadcast on the program “Middle East Diaries”, the emergency radio service on BBC Arabic. You can listen to daily episodes from Sunday to Thursday. here
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