This week marked the two-year anniversary of the war in Sudan. Reports by Mark Townsend, Kaamil Ahmed and Karl Schembri all shone a light on the desperate situation in the country as the UK hosted ministers from 20 countries in a vain attempt to restart stalled peace talks.
The facts are stark: almost 13 million people have been displaced amid “the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded”. Tens of thousands are reportedly dead. Hundreds of thousands face famine.
The numbers are terrifying, but it is the stories of those living through the darkest of times that make this not just a war of numbers but of lives destroyed; a country devastated.
Karl reported from El Geneina on the family of orphaned siblings who made a 1,000-mile journey across Sudan to find safety. Accompanying his report were photographs of the pictures that the children had drawn on the walls of the abandoned house they now call home. Nine-year-old Mujtaba’s drawing was not of flowers, the sun, birds or cosy little houses but of pickup trucks used by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is accused of committing genocide. The walls of the house are covered in everyday scenes the children are experiencing – images of fighting and guns.
Kaamil’s report on the death of 35-year-old business mentor Alwaleed Abdeen after months of torture at the hands of the RSF was a devastating tale that began when Abdeen decided to stay in Khartoum because he felt he could not leave his elderly parents. He disappeared in October 2024. Six months later, a video emerged of him so emaciated that friends could barely recognise him. The news that Abdeen had died later in hospital prompted a wave of mourning on Sudanese social media. One of his neighbours, Reem Gaafar, told Kaamil: “I am ashamed because I know this happened to thousands of people, some in worse situations, to women, but when you see it happen to someone you know, it is a whole different thing.”
I didn’t know Abdeen but now I know his story, and it is a reminder that those who have died and the millions who have been displaced are just ordinary people trying to live ordinary lives, despite being caught up in a pointless, brutal war.
Max Benato, Deputy editor, Foundations and philanthropic projects |
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