Life is gradually returning to normal in Tuti, this Sudanese island which was besieged from June 2023 to March 2025 by paramilitaries.
General Daglo's men ruled there without faith or law, forcing its 30,000 inhabitants to flee. They returned home after the army recaptured Khartoum.
The shops have reopened, although the islanders are marked by these days spent in an open-air prison.
Thank God, we are back home after so much exhaustion and suffering. We suffered from rents, rising prices and many other things, but thank God, we are back home, safe, with our family," says Nosayba Saad, a Sudanese woman living on Tuti Island.
For nearly two years, Al-Shubbak witnessed the unfolding tragedy. She chose the path of resistance, refusing to leave her land.
"I didn't leave, this is my country (my village), and I won't leave it. My family didn't leave either during the war against the British; they resisted them with stones and didn't abandon their homes. I too stayed in my country and I didn't leave," says Al-Shubbak, a Sudanese resident living on Tuti Island.
She savors her resilience as the villagers resume gatherings in front of the old red brick mosque, where a rusty plaque reads "founded in 1480". Tuti is rising from the ashes; its inhabitants can hardly believe it.
"It's an indescribable feeling. We can't believe we've overcome the suffering and the life we were leading. Thank God, as you can see, the situation is good," says Salaheldin Abdelqader, a Sudanese resident living on Tuti Island.
Farmers have returned to their land, which once supplied much of Khartoum's fresh produce through its orchards and vegetable fields.
