GEOFF BENNETT: Sudan's civil war has left tens of thousands dead and displaced millions over the nearly 14 months since the Sudanese military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged the country into a devastating war.

The capital, Khartoum, is a battleground, as is its neighboring city of Omdurman.

And it's from there that Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News reports.

LINDSEY HILSUM: They want to show they're on top, soldiers and police of the Sudan Armed Forces in the center of Omdurman doing the sign of the falcon: We have seized our prey.

The aim is to demonstrate to us that they're back in control and that the people are happy to see them.

But such triumphalism is premature.

They may have driven the Rapid Support Force militia out of this part of Omdurman in March, but their enemy still occupies Omdurman's twin city, the capital, Khartoum, and much of the rest of Sudan.

We drive through a city of ruins.

Imagine the shopkeepers, the people who lived here, the lives destroyed by this futile war.

Families rescue a few belongings from looters.

Every hundred meters or so, new local recruits have erected another checkpoint.

Everyone's nervous.

General Abdel Fattah Burhan presides over devastation, over a country that's coming apart, the legitimacy of his leadership open to question.

The last battle for this part of Omdurman was fought here in the middle of March.

This area was absolutely littered with bodies.

The Ministry of Health came and removed hundreds.

But the RSF is still just about four kilometers up the road.

The battle for the capital of Sudan is not over yet.

Walls that remain intact hide the greatest horrors.

This house was owned by a poet who fled to Saudi Arabia.

The RSF took it over, but they didn't just trash the place as they did elsewhere, but turned it into a torture or maybe execution chamber.

They dug a pit and placed a pulley on an iron bar on the ceiling to hoist people up and suspend them.

Rumors of what happened here spread.

After the RSF was driven out, the homeowners asked a neighbor to come and check.

WALEED AHMED, Neighbor: When I came here, I was shocked at what I saw in front of me.

What could possibly have gone on here?

Afterwards, I told other people in the neighborhood there was something strange in this house.

I mean, from the side of the iron bar and the holes in the ground, it's obvious that something terrible happened here.

LINDSEY HILSUM: We found a document listing names, 31-year-old Omar Ahmed Adam (ph), a 30-year-old woman, Manal Hassan (ph), 12 names in total, all accused of great betrayal, in other words, not supporting the RSF.

And amongst the debris, mementos of the happy family who once lived here, who can never in their worst imaginings have predicted what would happen in their home.

So there were really big battles here, yes?

RASHEED AHMED, Sudan: Yes.

LINDSEY HILSUM: I walked a few yards around the corner with Rasheed Ahmed, who stayed at home here in old Omdurman for four months until the fighting became too intense.

Outside his house, we can smell death.

The piles of earth are makeshift graves.

RSF slogans have been graffitied on the walls.

RASHEED AHMED: It's my car.

LINDSEY HILSUM: Is this your car?

RASHEED AHMED: It's my car, yes.

LINDSEY HILSUM: It was your car?

RASHEED AHMED: It was, yes.

(LAUGHTER) LINDSEY HILSUM: His house was badly damaged.

A rocket hit after he left.

But the cornicing, with which his grandfather adorned the walls when he built the house in the 1940s, remains.

RASHEED AHMED: We don't expect it to happen to us.

In all our dreams, we can't imagine this.

Always, we hear about wars outside Khartoum and outside Omdurman, not in Omdurman, not in Khartoum.

Very bad.

Very bad.

LINDSEY HILSUM: Do you think you will live here again?

RASHEED AHMED: Sure.

Sure.

It's my house.

It's my home.

We will build here again, inshallah.

LINDSEY HILSUM: The children still play, even if they fled their homes and are living in a school that doubles as a center for the displaced.

Their mothers, of course, can't forget what brought them here.

INANN, Sudan (through translator): The RSF attacked our homes and tried to rape our girls.

We managed to hide them upstairs, but the RSF men killed the girls' aunt and two uncles who were trying to defend them.

Now our situation is difficult.

Of course, our men can't find jobs.

LINDSEY HILSUM: In the absence of international aid, neighborhood groups are pitching in.

Do you think that the international community has let you down?

MOHAMMED YAHYIA, Sudan Social Development Organization: Yes, yes.

Unfortunately, I think so.

I think that people's eyes now on Ukraine and Gaza, but we got not a lot of help here in Sudan.

Basically, people need food and medicine, basically, OK?

LINDSEY HILSUM: Food and medicine, as simple as that?

MOHAMMED YAHYIA: As simple as that.

LINDSEY HILSUM: Because, in war, you see the best, as well as the worst of humankind, the best being people like Dr. Mohammed Banaga, who started a soup kitchen for displaced people funded by local shops and friends in the Sudanese diaspora.

And you stayed here throughout the war.

Were you not afraid?

DR. MOHAMMED BANAGA, Medical Doctor: No, no, no, I'm not afraid.

Afraid of what?

LINDSEY HILSUM: Afraid of being killed?

DR. MOHAMMED BANAGA: Man will kill -- will die once, no, not twice, once.

(LAUGHTER) LINDSEY HILSUM: This family just escaped Wad Madani to the southeast of Omdurman, where the RSF recently seized control.

All over Sudan, people are going hungry because they have lost everything, the economy has collapsed, and armed men frequently steal what little aid is available.

AHMED SULEIMAN, Sudan (through translator): The situation is very bad.

They're killing civilians, looting them and throwing them out of their homes.

They took their livelihoods, their crops and everything they have.

LINDSEY HILSUM: Ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, not a paradise lost, but a country.

Neighboring powers are fueling this war, the United Arab Emirates arming the RSF, Iran and Egypt backing the Sudan Armed Forces.

If the parties aren't forced to negotiate, what will be left of Sudan?

Nothing that can be reassembled, but a failed state in a forever war, its people dispersed and destitute.

GEOFF BENNETT: That report was from Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News.