The tiny, defiant Nile island caught in the heart of Sudan's war

For nearly two years, Al-Shubbak watched through ancient grey eyes as Tuti, the crescent-shaped island in the heart of the Sudanese capital she calls home, emptied of its inhabitants under a punishing paramilitary siege.She refused to leave."I didn't even move for the English when they colonised us," she told AFP through a toothless smile, a year after the army broke the siege, and 70 after the British occupation of Khartoum ended.