Al Jazeera Net correspondents
Khartoum- President intends council of state And Commander-in-Chief LFor the Sudanese army Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan He moved his residence from Port Sudan The capital of the Red Sea State in the east of the country to Atbara in River Nile State In the north within weeks.
Al-Burhan took Port Sudan as the temporary administrative capital of the country after leaving the army headquarters in Central Khartoum In August 2023, after being besieged since the outbreak of fighting between the army and…Rapid Support Forces In mid-April 2023.
Government sources close to the Sovereignty Council revealed to Al Jazeera Net that the Council approved the distribution of ministries’ headquarters among states Kassala Gedaref in the east of the country, and DongolaMarawi Atbara Al-Damer is in its north, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Economy will remain in Port Sudan.
Center of gravity
According to the same sources, some members of the Sovereignty Council will move their residences to the states, where it will move Property owner The Vice President of the Council will go to Kassala, and member Ibrahim Jaber will go to Gedaref, and members Shams al-Din Kabashi, Abdullah Yahya, and Salah Adam Tor Rassas will remain in Port Sudan, along with Yasser al-Atta in Omdurman.
Government sources explained that Port Sudan has become an economic and commercial center of gravity, and the headquarters of institutions, companies, organizations, embassies and ports are located there, and there are not sufficient buildings to accommodate state activity. According to her, the transfer of the head of the Sovereignty Council, some of its members, and the headquarters of ministries to the states will lead to activating executive work and improving services in cities, and will enhance citizens’ feelings of closeness to the shadow of authority and government attention.
The same sources expected Al-Burhan to move at a later stage from Atbara to Omdurman after the army’s advance during the past days in Omdurman, Khartoum Bahri, and Khartoum. The liberation of the capital is expected to be completed before the end of the year, explaining that central and eastern Khartoum – where the headquarters of the presidential palace, the army leadership, and the majority of ministries are located. And institutions – there are environmental risks that may need time to be addressed after the war stops, and the region has witnessed widespread destruction.
For its part, the Atbara Airport Development and Rehabilitation Committee said that the construction operations taking place at the airport include transforming it into an international airport that meets the needs of the state and the country in the areas of transporting goods and passengers.
Environmental risks
During his visit to the Nile River State, Al-Burhan inspected the progress of work in rehabilitating and modernizing Atbara Airport, and directed the Civil Aviation Authority to include the largest possible number of airports in the list of international airports and to redouble efforts to open it during this year as a strategic project that achieves internal and external interests.
For his part, the expert and former Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Environment and Urban Promotion in Khartoum State, Al-Tijani Al-Asam, believes that the center of the capital is a closed central circle that is not suitable for any vital work except after scientific procedures and treatments.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the expert said that the center of Khartoum, the center of the capital, was and still is the scene of extensive and continuous military operations, and the region embraces multiple and diverse centers of chemical, physical, biological and medical laboratories, natural museums and animal sciences.
In his opinion, these multiple areas – in a normal situation – need specific requirements of electricity, air conditioning, ventilation, containment, medical security, buildings and specialized equipment, but they were destroyed and these organisms and chemicals were liberated and became floating and polluted.
The expert added that the destruction of these centers led to pollution of the air, soil and water, resulting in environmental damage, and thus the basic requirements of life for any living organism are lacking. The damage caused by war to the environment slows down the pace of achieving the quality of natural life components unless scientific treatment is carried out in stages that begin Measuring rates of environmental poisoning.
The capital of iron and fire
The city of Atbara is located in the Nile River State in the north of the country, about 310 kilometers away from Khartoum, about 10 kilometers from the city of El Damer, the capital of the state, about 611 kilometers from the port of Port Sudan, and about 474 kilometers south from Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border.
It is also located on the northern bank of the Atbara River and the eastern bank ofNile River It is considered one of the oldest cities Sudan The most ancient of them, it is called the capital of iron and fire because it hosts the country’s railway headquarters.
The British chose Atbara in the past to become a military site for their forces after regaining the colonization of the nearby cities of Abu Hamad and Berber in 1898, due to its location surrounded by the Nile and Atbara rivers from the south and west. It was famous in its ancient and modern history for its railways and the Sudanese trade union movement.
