“She left no final phrases. She was lifeless when she was carried away,” says Hafiza quietly, as she describes how her mom was killed in a metropolis beneath siege in Darfur, throughout Sudan’s civil warfare, which started precisely two years in the past.
The 21-year-old recorded how her household’s life was turned the wrong way up by her mom’s dying, on certainly one of a number of telephones the BBC World Service managed to get to individuals trapped within the crossfire in el-Fasher.
Beneath fixed bombardment, el-Fasher has been largely reduce off from the surface world for a 12 months, making it unattainable for journalists to enter town. For security causes, we’re solely utilizing the primary names of people that needed to movie their lives and share their tales on the BBC telephones.
Hafiza describes how she abruptly discovered herself answerable for her five-year-old brother and two teenage sisters.
Their father had died earlier than the beginning of the warfare, which has pitted the military towards the paramilitary Speedy Assist Forces (RSF) and precipitated the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster.
Hafiza has tried to assist displaced individuals in el-Fasher via voluntary work, together with distributing blankets and meals [Hafiza]
The 2 rivals had been allies – coming to energy collectively in a coup – however fell out over an internationally backed plan to maneuver in direction of civilian rule.
Hafiza’s house is the final main metropolis managed by the navy in Sudan’s western area of Darfur, and has been beneath siege by the RSF for the previous 12 months.
In August 2024, a shell hit the market the place her mom had gone to promote family items.
“Grief could be very tough, I nonetheless cannot deliver myself to go to her office,” says Hafiza in certainly one of her first video messages after receiving her cellphone, shortly after her mom’s dying.
“I spend my time crying alone at dwelling.”
Each side within the warfare have been accused of warfare crimes and intentionally concentrating on civilians – which they deny. The RSF has additionally beforehand denied accusations from the US and human rights teams that it has dedicated a genocide towards non-Arab teams in different elements of Darfur after it seized management of these areas.
The RSF controls passage out and in town and generally permits civilians to depart, so Hafiza managed to ship her siblings to stick with household in a impartial space.
However she stayed to attempt to earn cash to assist them.
In her messages, she describes her days distributing blankets and water to displaced individuals dwelling in shelters, serving to at a neighborhood kitchen and supporting a breast most cancers consciousness group in return for somewhat cash to assist her survive.
Her nights are spent alone.
“I bear in mind the locations the place my mom and siblings used to sit down, I really feel damaged,” she provides.
In virtually each video 32-year-old Mostafa despatched us, the sound of shelling and gunfire may be heard within the background.
“We endure relentless artillery shelling, each day and evening, by the RSF,” he says.
Sooner or later, after visiting household, he returned to seek out his home close to town centre had been hit by shells – the roof and partitions had been broken – and looters had ransacked what was left.
“All the things was turned the wrong way up. Most homes in our neighbourhood have been looted,” he says, blaming the RSF.
Whereas Mostafa was volunteering at a shelter for displaced individuals, the realm got here beneath intense assault. He saved his digicam rolling as he hid, flinching at every explosion.
“There isn’t a secure place in el-Fasher,” he says. “Even refugee camps are being bombed with artillery shells.
“Loss of life can strike anybody, anytime, with out warning… by a bullet, shelling, starvation or thirst.”
Mostafa’s home was hit by a shell and looted [BBC]
In one other message, he talks concerning the lack of fresh water, describing how individuals drink from sources contaminated with sewage.
Each Mostafa and 26-year-old Manahel, who additionally acquired a BBC cellphone, volunteered at neighborhood kitchens funded by donations from Sudanese individuals dwelling elsewhere.
The UN has warned of famine within the metropolis, one thing that has already occurred on the close by Zamzam camp, which is dwelling to greater than 500,000 displaced individuals.
Many individuals can’t get to the market “and in the event that they go, they discover excessive costs”, explains Manahel.
“Each household is equal now – there is no such thing as a wealthy or poor. Folks cannot afford the essential requirements like meals.”
The meals that Manahel helps to arrange are sometimes the one meals individuals can get [Manahel]
After cooking meals akin to rice and stew, they ship the meals to individuals in shelters. For a lot of, it’s the solely meal they are going to have for the day.
When the warfare began, Manahel had simply completed college, the place she studied Sharia and regulation.
Because the combating reached el-Fasher, she moved along with her mom and 6 siblings to a safer space, additional away from the entrance line.
“You lose your private home, the whole lot you personal and end up in a brand new place with nothing,” she says.
However her father refused to depart their home. Some neighbours had entrusted him with their belongings, and he determined to remain to guard them – a choice that price him his life.
She says he was killed by RSF artillery in September 2024.
Manahel and her household needed to transfer to a different home as a result of their dwelling was near the entrance line [Manahel]
Because the siege started a 12 months in the past, virtually 2,000 individuals have been killed or injured in el-Fasher, in accordance with the UN.
After sundown, individuals not often depart their properties. The shortage of electrical energy could make night-time horrifying for a lot of of el-Fasher’s a million residents.
Folks with solar energy or batteries are scared to show lights on as a result of they “might be detected by drones”, explains Manahel.
There have been occasions we couldn’t attain her or the others for a number of days as a result of that they had no web entry.
However above all these worries, there’s one specific concern that each Manahel and Hafiza share if town falls to the RSF.
“As a lady, I’d get raped,” Hafiza says in certainly one of her messages.
She, Manahel and Mostafa are all from non-Arabic communities and their concern stems from what occurred in different cities that the RSF has taken, most notably el-Geneina, 250 miles (400km) west of el-Fasher.
Houses and different buildings lie empty in a few of el-Geneina’s neighbourhoods [BBC]
In 2023 it witnessed horrific massacres, alongside ethnic traces, which the US and others say amounted to genocide. RSF fighters and allied Arab militia allegedly focused individuals from non-Arab ethnic teams, such because the Massalit – which the RSF has beforehand denied.
A Massalit girl I met in a refugee camp over the border in Chad described how she was gang-raped by RSF fighters and was unable to stroll for practically two weeks, whereas the UN has mentioned women as younger as 14 had been raped.
One man instructed me how he witnessed a bloodbath by RSF forces – he escaped after he was injured and left for lifeless.
The UN estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 individuals had been killed in el-Geneina alone in 2023. And now greater than 1 / 4 of one million individuals from town – half its former inhabitants – are amongst these dwelling in refugee camps in Chad.
We put these accusations to the RSF however it didn’t reply. Nonetheless, up to now it has denied any involvement in ethnic cleaning in Darfur, saying the perpetrators had worn RSF clothes to shift the blame to them.
Few reporters have had entry to el-Geneina since then, however after months of negotiation with town’s civil authorities, a BBC crew was allowed to go to in December 2024.
Armed RSF models patrol the streets of el-Geneina [BBC]
We had been assigned minders from the governor’s workplace and had been solely allowed to see what they needed to indicate us.
It was instantly clear that the RSF was in management. I noticed their fighters patrolling the streets in armed automobiles and had a quick dialog with a few of them, once they confirmed me their anti-vehicle rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher.
It didn’t take lengthy to grasp how in another way they seen the battle. Their commander insisted there have been no civilians like Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel dwelling in el-Fasher.
“The one who stays in a warfare zone is collaborating within the warfare, there aren’t any civilians, they’re all from the military,” he mentioned.
He claimed el-Geneina was now peaceable and that almost all of its residents – “round 90%” – had come again. “Houses that had been beforehand empty at the moment are occupied once more.”
However a whole bunch of hundreds of town’s residents are nonetheless dwelling as refugees in Chad, and I noticed many abandoned and destroyed neighbourhoods as we drove round.
Our minders took us to a market in el-Geneina the place customers mentioned meals costs had shot up [BBC]
With the minders watching us, it was arduous to get a real image of life in el-Geneina. They took us to a bustling vegetable market, the place I requested individuals about their lives.
Every time I requested somebody a query, I seen them look on the minder over my shoulder earlier than answering that the whole lot was “effective”, aside from a couple of feedback about excessive costs.
Nonetheless, my minder would usually whisper in my ear afterwards, saying individuals had been exaggerating concerning the costs.
We ended our journey with an interview with Tijani Karshoum, the governor of West Darfur whose predecessor was killed in Might 2023 after accusing the RSF of committing genocide.
It was his first interview since 2023, and he maintained he was a impartial civilian in the course of the el-Geneina unrest and didn’t facet with anybody.
“Accusations of killings, abductions or rape have to be addressed via an unbiased investigation””, Supply: Tijani Karshoum, Supply description: Governor of West Darfur, Picture: Tijani Karshoum
“We’ve got turned a brand new web page with the slogan of peace, coexistence, shifting past the bitterness of the previous,” he mentioned, including that the UN’s casualty figures had been “exaggerated”.
Additionally within the room was a person who we understood to be a consultant of the RSF.
Karshoum’s solutions to almost all my questions had been virtually similar, whether or not I used to be asking about accusations of ethnic cleaning or about what occurred to the previous governor, Khamis Abakar.
Practically two weeks after I spoke to Karshoum, the European Union imposed sanctions on him, saying he “holds duty within the deadly assault” on his predecessor and that he had “been concerned in planning, directing or committing… severe human rights abuses and violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation, together with killings, rape and different severe types of sexual and gender-based violence, and abduction”.
I adopted up with him to get his response to those accusations, and he mentioned: “Since I’m a suspect on this matter, I imagine any assertion from me would lack credibility.”
However he acknowledged that he “was by no means a part of the tribal battle and remained at dwelling in the course of the clashes” and added that he was not concerned in any violations of humanitarian regulation.
“Accusations of killings, abductions, or rape have to be addressed via an unbiased investigation” with which he would co-operate, Karshoum mentioned.
“From the beginning of the battle in Khartoum, we pushed for peace and proposed well-known initiatives to forestall violence in our socially fragile state,” he added.
Mostafa determined it was too harmful to remain in el-Fasher and left in November [Mostafa]
Given the stark distinction between the narrative promoted by these accountable for el-Geneina and the numerous tales I heard from refugees throughout the border, it’s arduous to think about individuals ever returning dwelling.
The identical goes for 12 million different Sudanese individuals who have fled their properties and are both refugees overseas or dwelling in camps inside Sudan.
Ultimately, Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel discovered life in el-Fasher insufferable and in November 2024 all three left town to remain in close by cities.
With the navy regaining management of the capital, Khartoum, in March, Darfur stays the final main area the place the paramilitaries are nonetheless largely in management – and that has turned el-Fasher into an much more intense battlefield.
“El-Fasher has develop into scary,” Manahel mentioned as she packed her belongings.
“We’re leaving with out understanding our destiny. Will we ever return to el-Fasher? When will this warfare finish? We do not know what’s going to occur.”
[BBC]
