Civilians trapped by massacres in Sudan

Sudan is experiencing “the biggest and worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” Hanin Ahmed told Dahdaleh Community Fellow Chris Houston on November 2. Ahmed is a communication officer for Sudan’s grassroots network known as Emergency Response Rooms. The group's 118 Emergency Response Rooms provide life-saving aid in a nation over two years into a war that has killed over 150,000 people and displaced over 12 million. Local doctors have reported on over 500,000 children killed by malnutrition.

Speaking by phone from Washington, D.C., Ahmed reported that the situation in Sudan was “exploding” as some communities were repeatedly forced to flee violence while others were trapped in besieged areas.

Ahmed grew up in Sudan’s capital city Khartoum. She spoke about the emotional impact that the war has on her colleagues. “It’s horrible,” she said. All of the volunteers “are in a very bad mental health situation", Ahmed said, “all of us operating on the ground, and the ones who are outside the country.”

Ahmed is keen to inform people of the plight of Sudanese people, and described the emergency as under-reported in the media. She longs for a greater sense that people care “we must advocate for each other,” she said, “for the sake of humanity.”

The war started in April 2023, and is the result of a power struggle broke between the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary. Ahmed rejects the common characterization of the conflict as a “civil war” and describes the violence as a “war on civilians." Ahmed lamented the lack of international efforts to halt the violence.

Emergency Response Rooms operate in each of Sudan’s 18 states. Ahmed said that her colleagues were urgently responding to a massacre in el-Fasher, and additional massacres in the town of Bara (North Kordofan state) and the city of Kadugli, (South Kordofan state).

Until the Rapid Support Forces took over the city on Nov. 27, el-Fasher had been besieged for over 500 days. Since RSF’s arrival, Ahmed has lost contact with her 150 volunteer-colleagues. “They might be killed, they might be dead. We do not know,” she said.

Last week, the United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described Sudan as entering “an even darker hell.” The UN has shared “credible reports of widespread executions” in el-Fasher. Ahmed said that the RSF attacked hospitals, killing infants and mothers. Human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond described the RSF as "killing at a scale and a velocity that I haven’t seen since Rwanda." Journalist Ahmed Gouja described the attack as “genocidal slaughter.”

Ahmed spoke of sexual violence and abductions of civilians: “There is systematic rape, there is kidnapping for people and they ask for money to release them.” The situation for civilians impacted by the war is dire, according to Ahmed, who noted that even in war, there is typically some route for emergency aid to reach people. She called on the international community to support the demands for “safe corridors” through which aid can enter and civilians can escape.

Ahmed reported that hunger is widespread in el-Fasher and that trapped civilians have been forced to eat harvest by-products, normally destined for cattle. The global system for famine warning has officially declared that area to be in official famine status.

Ahmed pleaded to the international community for political efforts to halt the violence. She described the need for protected escape routes from the conflict as the more pressing priority. She also stressed that the Emergency Response Rooms need more donations to keep their services operating. She detailed the organization's essential activities: “food baskets and communal food kitchens, safe space for women, alternative schools for children, medical clinics, hospitals, access to clean water and sanitation services.” The organization helps people with emergency shelter and with evacuation from places affected by violence.

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