In the early morning hours of June 8, sisters Khadija and Mariam are sitting at home in Geneina in Sudan. The city’s name can be translated from Arabic to “the little garden” in Norwegian. But this morning the sisters are sitting in the kitchen. Together with Mariam’s five children, they eat breakfast. For almost two months, they have lived during a war between the government forces in Sudan and the paramilitary group RSF. Facts about the fighting in Sudan On 15 April, fighting broke out in Sudan’s capital Khartoum between the government army and the former pro-government paramilitary group RSF. The conflict is between the country’s two top military leaders, both part of the military junta that has led the country since the coup in 2021: Army chief and junta leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who was Burhan’s second-in-command. Before the fighting broke out, there were negotiations to incorporate the RSF into the government army. The RSF was formed in 2013 and has fought on behalf of Sudan in the Darfur region. The group is known for being brutal and accused of being behind ethnic cleansing. Millions of civilians are caught in the crossfire in Khartoum. At least 1,000 people are said to have been killed and over 4.4 million have been forced to flee, over 1 million to neighboring countries. For almost as long, civilians have fled from “the little garden” to the neighboring country of Chad, which is an hour’s drive away. Before the sisters and children have time to finish breakfast, their home is hit by a bomb. Two of the children die instantly. It is their brother, Mohammed Haggar, who tells the story to news. Khadija, Mariam and the others are injured and taken to a local hospital. There is little help to be had, because the hospitals in Geneina lack doctors, nurses and equipment. In the absence of good enough help, Khadija dies of her injuries just under a week later. Mariam and the three other children survive, but it takes almost two months before the splinters from the explosions that remain in the bodies are operated on, Haggar continues. Khadija was the first woman in Mohammed’s family to attend university. On June 14, she died. Photo: Privat From Sudan to Sør-Trøndelag It is a long way from the brown plains in Geneina, where Haggar grew up, to the small agricultural municipality of Midtre Gauldal in Sør-Trøndelag, where he has lived since 2015. – It is difficult to describe what I felt when I learned they had been killed. The announcement came as a shock, says Haggar. Not long after, large parts of the family decided to flee to Chad, as many other Sudanese have done in recent months. Haggar with two of his nieces who survived the explosion at home. Photo: Privat UN: Over a million on the run Several millions have been forced to flee as a result of the fighting in Sudan, according to the UN’s Organization for Migration (IOM). Over a million are in neighboring countries, most in Egypt and Chad. At the same time, over three million have been internally displaced within Sudan. Over 358,000 Sudanese have found their way to the border town of Adré in Chad in recent months, and many of the refugees are staying in the desert without access to food and water, Doctors Without Borders informs NTB. This photo is from a refugee camp in Borota, near the border between Chad and Sudan. Photo: Reuters Silvia Beccacece leads the Norwegian Refugee Council’s emergency aid team for Sudan. For the past two weeks she has been in Adré. Beccacece describes the whole thing as chaotic to news. – Due to a lack of resources and money, an unsustainable situation is approaching, says Beccacece. She goes on to say that the aim of the authorities and the humanitarian organizations is to relocate the refugees who arrive in the border town to existing and new refugee camps in the region. – But the pace of relocation of refugees does not interact with the amount of refugees arriving, she says. It has ended up with new, sporadic refugee camps springing up in and around the city. A Sudanese family arrives in Adré from Geneina by horse and cart. Photo: Reuters – Sudanese make homes out of sticks they find, covering them with the clothes they have. If they are lucky, they have plastic wrap that they can use, she continues. But it is not just relocation that is a challenge. Many of the refugees Beccacece and her team meet have experienced seeing family members killed in front of their eyes, they have seen bodies on the roads and several cannot get hold of other family members who they fear have been killed. – In addition to the psychological stress, many lack access to water, clothes, food and kitchen equipment. Then many are injured and need health care. The situation is critical. This is where Haggar’s family finds themselves after fleeing. From Sør-Trøndelag to Chad On 17 July, when many Norwegians went on holiday against the heat waves in Europe, Haggar got on the plane down to Chad to meet his family. When he arrived, the job started with finding someone who could operate on the older sister and the children. – They still had splinters from the explosion in their bodies which could not be removed in the hospitals in Sudan. After much back and forth, they finally got help, thanks to the fact that Haggar has friends in Adré who are doctors. Haggar was sent these pictures of her older sister after the operation. They will show the splinters that were in her and the children’s bodies. Photo: Privat But Haggar did not travel down only because of his family. Since 2020, he has been chairman of the board of “Darfurian association in Norway”. Before leaving, the organization collected approximately NOK 100,000 to help refugees in Chad, he says. They used the money to buy medicine, tents and netting for those who were hardest hit. – Those who work there say that the need for help is greater than the available capacity. There are not enough health personnel, food or drink for everyone, says Haggar. Haggar spent much of his time in Adré talking to refugees to document their stories. Photo: Private Beccacece says that there are several reasons why the situation has become as serious as it is. – First of all, it is difficult to get to Adré because of bad roads and the fact that it is far from the capital. That, together with the large amount of refugees arriving and the lack of funding, creates a serious humanitarian crisis, says Beccacece and adds: – I have been present during many humanitarian crises. This is one of the worst in terms of funding and financial support.
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Mohammed went from Norway to Chad to help his family – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
