A neighborhood near the center of Sudan’s conflict has been a near-constant battleground for more than a year. Omdurman, which sits opposite the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum, is scarred, and some of its main streets are in ruins.
For months, access to the area has been difficult, and many of its residents have fled. The families who couldn’t leave have paid a heavy price in death, hunger, and deprivation.
Soad Hamed lost her brother, sister, niece, and nephew when a shell strike caused their family house to collapse in the Al-Manara area of Omdurman. She says they were told to go inside by soldiers occupying the street before a shell brought part of the structure down.
“We were harmed, all my family members passed away. The building collapsed on them. They were sitting, and my brother was standing in his shop selling vegetables. The soldiers ordered him to go inside (home). My sister tried to escape to a higher place, but they ordered her to go inside as well. As soon as she entered, it collapsed on her immediately. I received the devastating news that all my family had died,” Hamed recounts.
The northeastern African nation plunged into chaos in April last year when tensions between the military and a notorious paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, turned into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the country. The war has meant heavy artillery in the country’s most urban areas, but also combat in the remote provinces of Darfur.
Ekhlas Mohammad’s house was also hit, killing her husband, mother, and son-in-law.
“Our house collapsed, killing my daughter’s husband and destroying everything in the house. My mother died, and then my husband as well. People feel a deep sense of injustice. They don’t understand why they’re being targeted in their homes. People have been living here for 60 years,” Mohammad says.
The conflict has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation. Its atrocities include mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the U.N. and international rights groups.
Sudan’s war has created the world’s largest displacement crisis. More than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting began, according to the International Organization for Migration. Over two million of those fled to neighboring countries.
Diplomats and aid workers say the country is in the midst of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and recent efforts to bring both sides together to work towards a ceasefire failed.
But the sounds of fighting have not gone quiet in Omdurman. Khalid al-Mubarak says residents gather the children in one place to keep them safe.
“Even as of yesterday, there was still shelling, and people have become frightened, fearing for their children. They are gathering in one place out of fear of being shelled,” he said.