Ahmad Mahmoud/MSFEA doctor in a refugee camp in southern Sudan
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:40
Eve deVries
foreign editor
Eve deVries
foreign editor
For more than 100 days, fighting has been going on in Sudan between the government army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It is particularly striking in and around the capital Khartoum and in the Darfur region. As international attention continues to fade, the bombs continue to fall.
“We live in constant fear,” Almogera Abdalbagi tells NOS from Khartoum. “Shots ring out and rockets hit, people are kidnapped from their homes and there is hardly any food.”
When the fighting started in April, Abdalbagi thought it would only last about three days. He and his family decided to stay, but in the following months the prospects only got worse. “Leaving is even harder now,” he says. He points out the front line that runs through the city, numerous military checkpoints and prohibitively expensive transportation.
Decision
Abubakar Moaz, an artist from Khartoum, has since left, but postponed that decision for as long as possible. “My life is there, my friends and family are there, I wanted to stay.” During the fighting, about thirty relatives moved in with him, because his house is in a relatively safe place. But all those people had to eat. There was hardly any food and no money came in because hardly anyone can work. “It was no longer possible, I had to do something,” he says.
And so he left after all, as one of the 3.5 million other refugees. After a difficult journey of three weeks, he arrived in the Kenyan capital Nairobi last week. He knows some people there and hopes there will be his art to be able to sell. He can send the money he earns to his family.
The war in Sudan
On April 15, fighting began between the government army led by General Burhan and RSF paramilitary fighters led by General Hemedti. The RSF took control of a large part of Khartoum and surrounding cities and the government army has been carrying out airstrikes ever since. The situation in the Darfur region is also deteriorating rapidly. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, a total of about 3.5 million people have fled. The official death toll stands at over 1100, but that number will actually be a lot higher lie.
“I’m glad I’m safe, but all I can think about is home, my parents and siblings. They’re trapped there, surrounded by armed forces,” says Moaz.
He talks about women and girls who are taken away just like that. Sexual violence is on the rise. “I’ve seen things I never want to talk about again. Everyone has lost loved ones. We bury the dead in our gardens.”
AFPRe plumes over a neighborhood in Khartoum, the city is still fighting fiercely.
Aid organization Doctors Without Borders paints a similar picture, of a country in chaos. Employees travel all over the country to help as many people as possible. From gunshot wound care to childbirth. “We are doing what we can, but it is very difficult. We are under great pressure and exhausted, medical supplies are running out and there is constant fighting in some places,” says emergency coordinator Ed Taylor from Port Sudan. Recently, a team from the aid organization beaten and threatened.
According to the UN, aid agencies need more money to do their job, but Taylor says there are also other major obstacles: “Supplies now only get into the country from one place, but the distances are huge so it takes a long time to get stuff from get A to B”.
He says that aid organizations are encountering many bureaucratic problems because government institutions are not functioning properly at the moment. “In Nairobi, for example, a team has been ready to help for a while, but we can’t get the visas done.”
Abubakar MoazThe drawing pad of Abubakar Moaz.
Meanwhile, Moaz draws off. He had to leave his materials behind in his studio, but he was just able to put a drawing pad, markers and pencils in his bag. With that he makes sketches of his city at war; a family on the run, burning buildings, rolling tanks. “The world does not know what is happening in Sudan, this way I can record it, show the reality.”
He no longer believes in a diplomatic solution to the conflict. He thinks the two generals will keep fighting until one loses. “Even if there is ever peace again, Sudan will need years and years to recover. Khartoum as we know it, that vibrant beautiful city, is gone.”
Meanwhile, Abdalbagi is increasingly thinking about leaving Khartoum after all. He feels trapped there, the chance of getting away is getting smaller by the day. “Maybe I can continue my studies in a neighboring country, or maybe even apply for asylum in Europe,” he says.
But deep down, he doesn’t want to leave and still has some hope: “Look at history,” he says. “Many countries went through misery before things got better. Perhaps the same is true of Sudan.”
2023-08-01 05:40:57
#War #Sudan #rages #bury #dead #gardens
