As the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) entered its eleventh month, the suffering of those fleeing the war increased in temporary shelters in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State.
Many families were forced to leave their homes in the neighborhoods in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. They escaped cannon fire and stray bullets, in addition to the interruption of water and electricity supplies and the closure of markets.
Hajj Adam Youseff told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that they fled to El Fasher after they were told to leave Nyala’s Al-Jir neighborhood last week due to fears of the war escalating. After three days without a single meal, Youssef and his family arrived in El Fasher.
“My children were in the back of the vehicle when citizens were informed to withdraw from the Al-Jir on Wednesday last week,” he narrated. “I then sent my son to inform the rest of the family members in the Al-Salam suburb to prepare to travel.”
According to Youssef, the family left the Al-Salam area east of Nyala last Thursday morning and passed through the Dar Al-Salam where they had their first meal in three days before arriving in El-Fasher.
“In El Fasher, we remained under trees before we were registered by the Humanitarian Affairs Commission which later provided us with some assistance, but the reality of the situation is difficult and our economic conditions are more complex,” he lamented.
Youseff hopes that peace will prevail in Sudan and that the displaced populations will return to their homes.
Meanwhile, Nour al-Sham Adam, 30, a mother of three girls, revealed that she left her home in the Nahda suburb of Nyala Town with her children after a stray bullet hit her in the chest. She says the bullet is still lodged in her chest because she did not have enough money to undergo a medical procedure to remove it. Al-Sham’s husband traveled back to Nyala to guard their house.
“The living conditions at the Al Salam School where we camped were desperate and deteriorating and I was suffering from pain due to the bullet lodged in my chest which in turn exacerbated the sadness of my children so we had to flee,” she laments.
For her part, Zahra Suleiman, a twenty-year-old woman who fled with her family from the Al-Salam area of Nyala in South Darfur, said that the situation had become difficult due to the intensification of fighting and that it became difficult to survive in the town, forcing them to move to El Fasher.
“Those who received us did not fail to help us but we are still suffering due to lack of food and basic services, especially access to water,” she stated. “We eat meat once a week and sometimes we are satisfied with one meal a day.”
Suleiman appealed to humanitarian organizations to intervene and help those fleeing the war.
Last week, the North Darfur State Humanitarian Affairs Commission announced that the number of temporary shelter centers for displaced people in El Fasher had reached 96. The number of families in the various centers reached 23,240, translating to 117,912 individuals.