Sudan's war leaves Khartoum with unexploded mines and other weapons

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Khaled Abdulgader noticed children using an unusual object as a football and tried to stop them. He grabbed it, and it exploded in his hand. He lost two fingers, and shrapnel sliced into his chest.

In a hospital for a checkup after last year's blast, he tried to stay positive.

“I feel like, ‘Thank God it was just my hands,’” Abdulgader said.

He is among hundreds of people who have been injured or killed by unexploded ordnance in Sudan's three years of war. That includes mines as well as weapons such as bombs, shells, grenades or rockets that failed to detonate, tens of thousands of items in all.

The government and aid groups say it's a problem particularly in and around Khartoum, where residents, many unfamiliar with the threat, have started to return after the Sudanese military recaptured the capital last year.

Nearly 60 people were injured or killed in Khartoum state last year, over half of them children, and 23 were injured or killed in the first three months of this year, 21 of them children, according to the United Nations.

Decades of conflict in Sudan have left unexploded ordnance scattered across the country, with a combined area of about 7,700 football fields contaminated.

More than half of that is the result of the war that erupted in 2023 between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, with new areas such as Khartoum state affected.

Both the Sudanese army and the RSF have been accused of laying mines, according to aid groups, during the war as they fought for control of the capital.

“The presence of land mines and other explosive ordnance is of great concern to everybody," said Juma Abuanja, the team leader for Jasmar, a Sudanese demining group.

He said it will take years to clear. Demining is a slow, careful process with staff covering 10 to 15 square meters a day.

Khartoum city is still a ghost town, strewn with remnants of fighting. Charred, abandoned buildings are pocked with bullet holes.

Walking through the streets, AP journalists saw a soldier emerge from a house with a small metal object that appeared to be a tail of a rocket-propelled grenade after being summoned by a resident to assess the threat.

A member of the military media accompanied the AP during the visit, including during interviews. The AP retains full editorial control of its content.

Tens of thousands of people have returned to the city and 1.7 million have returned to Khartoum state, according to the U.N.

The U.N. says deminers over nearly the past year have cleared some 7.8 million square meters of land in Khartoum state. They found more than 36,000 items including hundreds of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.

Those that are safe to move are destroyed away from population areas. Those that can't be moved are destroyed on the spot.

There is still much to clear as people try to rebuild their lives.

In Khartoum, Jasmar's demining team has spent eight months clearing a popular park from land mines, one of at least seven identified mine fields in Khartoum state. Some locations are on the outskirts. Others are downtown. Some are near important bridges.

Removing their heavy vests and face shields, team members rested last week under trees between shifts, shielded from the scorching sun.

The clearance of some 123,000 square meters in the park began in August and is expected to be completed in May. So far the group has found more than 160 devices, including anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.

Abuanja said at least one person was killed in the park before they started clearing it. The area is now cordoned off, surrounded by danger signs.

Sudan's government says it is doing what it can to reduce the threat but says it is strapped for cash and personnel.

A government official told the AP it is trying to raise awareness by speaking at mosques and in the markets and via radio and podcasts, and it is creating educational materials with schools. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Yet several injured people told the AP they hadn’t seen or heard any warnings, which began in late 2024.

Some people said there could be fear of reporting unexploded ordnance to authorities because they could be questioned about why they have weapons. A report earlier this year by Human Rights Watch said security forces have detained civilians for allegedly collaborating with the RSF, especially in areas where the army has regained control.

Others don't recognize the threat until it's too late.

Mogadem Ibrahim once picked up a piece of metal thinking it was part of a car. But when it stuck to his hand and he tried to strike it away, it exploded.

The 18-year-old now keeps his bandaged left arm hidden beneath his clothes. The blast outside his home in Omdurman in August took his fingers, and he can no longer work as a laborer.

“I feel depressed and worthless. I was supporting my family and now I’m sitting here and doing nothing,” he said.

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A member of Jasmar's demining team displays pieces of shrapnel found in a mine-affected area in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A member of Jasmar's demining team wears personal protective equipment, or PPE, at a demining site in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A member of Jasmar's demining team works in a mine-affected area in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Mogadem Ibrahim, 18, who was injured in an explosion caused by unexploded ordnance, waits for treatment at Al Nao Hospital in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Emadeldein Babiker, 17, who was injured in an explosion caused by unexploded ordnance, sits on a bed at Al Nao Hospital in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Officials battling two large wildfires that have destroyed dozens of homes in southern Georgia warned Tuesday that firefighters are bracing for a prolonged battle even after weekend rains gave a big boost to containment efforts.

“A little bit of rain is going to help us, but it’s not going to get us out of this situation,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told a news conference after touring the fire areas Tuesday. “We’re going to be in this for a while.”

A fire that has burned roughly 35 square miles (90 square kilometers) and destroyed more than 80 homes in rural Brantley County was 32% contained, the command team overseeing the fire response said Tuesday. That's up from just 6% containment reported Monday.

Rains on Sunday slowed the fire enough to give crews an opening to widen containment lines along the perimeter and to snuff out some smoldering pockets, said Johnny Sabo, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission.

“As that number increases, our confidence at holding it in that footprint increases,” Sabo told reporters. He added: “We have a long way to go. I just want to stress that.”

A larger wildfire in sparsely populated Clinch and Echols counties has charred more than 50 square miles (130 square kilometers) at the Georgia-Florida line. Sabo said crews have held that fire to roughly the same footprint for four days. It was considered 23% contained Tuesday.

One home and several dozen sheds and other smaller structures were destroyed, said Don Thomas, a Georgia Forestry Commission spokesperson.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast. Scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees and other vegetation.

No fire injuries or deaths have been reported in Georgia. A volunteer firefighter in Nassau County, Florida, died last week after suffering an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire.

Progress made against the Brantley County blaze prompted local officials to lift evacuation orders Monday for roughly 1,500 people who had fled their homes. About 2,500 remained displaced, said Susan Heisey, a spokesperson for the fire command team.

Local officials have warned people returning home to be prepared to evacuate again if necessary.

Both Georgia fires ignited as the state's worst drought in two decades has rendered vast pine forests and swampy lowlands tinder dry and highly combustible.

Investigators concluded the Brantley County fire began April 20 when a foil balloon touched a power line, creating an electrical arc that set the ground ablaze. The fire in Clinch and Echols counties started April 18 by a falling spark as a man was welding a gate, according to state officials.

Forecasts showed a high chance of more rain over the fires this weekend. There's also a possibility of thunderstorms, which can produce lightning that causes new fires.

Officials haven't said how long the Georgia fires might burn, only that it will take significant rainfall to extinguish them.

Sabo noted that a vast fire sparked by lightning in the nearby Okefenokee Swamp in 2011 burned for just shy of a year.

Gov. Brian Kemp speaks on the fires in Southeast Georgia, Friday, April 24, 2026, in Waycross, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Blackened trees and charred palmetto fronds lined the shoulders of U.S. 82 on Monday, April 27, 2026 in Brantley County, Ga., as smoke poured from the ground in several spots beside the highway. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)