Amel Marhoum works for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Company. Earlier than the conflict remodeled Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, right into a battlefield she lived there together with her household. Beginning on April 15, 2023, over the past days of Ramadan, heavy gunfire and shelling trapped numerous households, together with her personal, of their houses with dwindling provides of meals and water. A yr later, each phase of Sudan’s inhabitants, from pastoralists in rural areas to the nation’s as soon as thriving city middle-class have been impacted. That is Amel’s reflection on how the conflict has modified her, her nation, and her work.
Earlier than the preventing actually started, there have been indications in Sudan that a minor battle was brewing, however not a full-fledged conflict. I nonetheless really feel like it’s a dream—or more-so a nightmare. I maintain considering tomorrow I’ll get up and issues can be fantastic. However issues are usually not fantastic.
April 14, 2023 felt like a traditional Ramadan evening. We had our suhoor (early morning meal earlier than dawn) and hours later the conflict erupted. That Saturday morning, April 15, I used to be sleeping, which tells you simply how peaceable and calm the day began out.
I used to be not ready for what occurred subsequent. The sudden sounds of heavy artillery, airstrikes, and shelling have been unimaginable. I had by no means heard feels like this in my life.
As a Liaison Officer at UNHCR, I’m the type of one that’s fast to react and take motion. I may make just a few cellphone calls to family members, buddies, and colleagues earlier than there was no connection. This was one of many large challenges on the time—not realizing what was occurring to folks. Equally difficult was serving to colleagues discover money, gasoline, and buses so they may go away Khartoum. I even bear in mind considering how a lot of a miracle it was when the UN convoy arrived on the metropolis of Port Sudan on April 24. Folks have been scrambling to depart any approach they may.
Every week later, as essentially the most senior nationwide employees member, I used to be put accountable for UNHCR’s workplace in Sudan. The cellphone didn’t cease ringing. We have been a crew of six, and our position was to assist our employees and refugees transfer out of hotspots to safer zones—a tough process as a result of, in our space, the shelling was very heavy. My colleagues have been terrified. Some wanted cash to movetheir youngsters to security, and a few have been caught in areas the place we couldn’t attain them. Day-after-day, we might get up and discover that our neighbors’ homes have been gone, and other people have been useless.
I assumed the preventing would final for per week or two, a month most, if it even dragged on within the first place. However then there was no meals or water, and we have been seeing extra troopers within the streets. We reached a degree through the fourth week once we actually needed to go away—and quick.
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On the highway to Madani, 85 miles southeast of Khartoum, I noticed solely destruction and demise. I can always remember this—it’s like a horror movie, however it’s one you’ll be able to’t swap off. At one level, the place we have been held at gunpoint, saying our final prayers. However then the troopers allow us to go.
On our journey, we reached the home of a household. We didn’t know them, and so they didn’t know us. They insisted we stick with them—they introduced us meals and made the beds for us. Of their home was the primary time I felt at peace sufficient to sleep correctly.
I arrange the UNHCR workplace in Madani in early Might, after which moved to Port Sudan a month later to determine [another]. Later I moved to Ethiopia to help UNHCR groups on the border with Sudan to obtain arriving refugees.
The lives of Sudanese refugees within the nations they’ve fled to are very robust now. A few of us have left with out paperwork. We’re with out a house, and a few have been left with nothing. However so long as there are individuals who, regardless of their very own worries, are keen to just accept us, there’s hope. I noticed this generosity with the Ethiopian folks – their willingness to accommodate Sudanese refugees, regardless of their very own challenges. They opened their borders and accepted us. However it additionally requires the help of the complete worldwide group and us humanitarian employees.
I really feel I’ve aged a lot this previous yr. This expertise has modified all of us in Sudan. However I nonetheless have hope and confidence—in myself, in my household, in my crew, in my work, and above all, in my nation.
Sudan is a rustic that has large sources. I imagine this era and future generations can carry out miracles with the precise help.
We are able to rise once more and turn out to be higher than once we began. That is what retains me going. —As instructed to Sara Bedri
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