In the streets of Delmas, the city appears to have reconnected with past habits in the way it celebrates the end-of-year holidays. After a gloomy end to 2024—marked in particular by fears of an invasion of the city’s nerve center by bandits—new colors are emerging during this festive period in 2025. As night falls, daytime life gives way to nightlife. Small vendors lay out their goods, a few bars and nightclubs open their doors, and the streets, still crowded with passersby, come alive until late in the evening.

This atmosphere of lively streets, however, unfolds in piercing darkness, in contrast with the usual festive ambiance. On major thoroughfares, there are no streetlights. Each shopkeeper and passerby must find their own means of lighting: generators for merchants, flashlights or mobile phone lights for road users. Everyone seems to have equipped themselves with suitable means to cope with this reality, to which all now appear accustomed.