Sudan's war leaves dead without graves

There was no headstone -- just a rough wooden plank marking the spot where his mother lay buried.

"We couldn't take her to a cemetery," he told AFP, his bloodshot eyes laden with exhaustion.

When his mother died in March 2024, the Sudanese capital was a war zone, torn apart by nearly a year of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Roads were choked with rubble, snipers lurked on rooftops and fighters roamed the streets, robbing or assaulting civilians as they passed.

Morjan had no choice. "We were forced to bury her outside our front door," he told AFP.

He is not alone. Across greater Khartoum, the war, which erupted in April 2023 between the army and the RSF, has made it nearly impossible for families to bury their dead.

With no safe passage to official cemeteries, families have been forced to dig graves wherever they can -- in backyards, streets and abandoned lots.

In the worst-hit neighbourhoods, streets that once bustled with markets and morning tea vendors are now lined with hastily dug graves.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.

In Khartoum alone, more than 61,000 people died of all causes during the first 14 months of war, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine -- a 50 percent increase in the pre-war death rate.

Of those deaths, 26,000 were attributed directly to violence, the report found last year.

- From playgrounds to graveyards -

In one neighbourhood in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, an old football field has been turned into an improvised graveyard.

Graves are marked with wooden planks, scrap metal or in some cases, a simple black chalkboard with a name scrawled in white.

Overturned and destroyed cars, rusting in the sun, stand nearby.

"These streets were once ordinary," said Al-Samani Mohammed Al-Samani, a volunteer gravedigger.

"Now, you can find bodies buried in front of homes," he told AFP.

And even these makeshift graves are not safe from harm.

"We were hit by shelling here in this cemetery," Al-Samani said. "Decomposing bodies filled this street," he said.

He said his attempts to reach official cemeteries have been met with violence by the RSF.

"We've tried many times to reach them, but the RSF beat us and blocked our way," Al-Samani said.

"We returned home carrying coffins," he added.

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately targeting civilians and deliberately shelling residential areas and medical facilities.

But the RSF has, in particular, been accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and widespread looting.

Nearly two years into the conflict, the army is now close to retaking all of Khartoum from paramilitaries, after recapturing the presidential palace and key state institutions this week.

But the RSF seems far from defeated, launching fresh attacks on residential neighbourhoods and claiming territory in remote parts of the country.