Human Wrongs Watch
By the Norwegian Refugee Council*
Text: Kristine Kolstad | Photos: Karl Schembri
16 April 2025 – Two years into Sudan’s war, millions of lives have been uprooted – and millions more hang in the balance. Behind the staggering statistics of displacement, hunger and loss, there are people like Khaled, Um Adam, Zainab and Mariam – each carrying the burden of a conflict they never chose.
These are not just stories of loss. They are urgent reminders of why the crisis in Sudan can’t be ignored.
“We had to flee because we were targeted by tanks, drones, planes – every kind of attack,” says Khaled, a father of five.
“It took us 17 days to get here. Seventeen days of suffering. We had no water, the road was rough, and at one point, armed men set one of our cars on fire. We lost everything.”
Before the war, Khaled sold women’s and children’s shoes. He speaks of that former life as though it belonged to someone else.
“We left everything behind – my work, our home, all our belongings. It’s not easy. I haven’t been able to work for two years. We just survive.”
Still, he holds onto hope. “Weapons will not bring any solution. The only solution is peace. If everyone holds a weapon against one another, we’ll only have more chaos. We need people to sit around a table and listen to each other,” he says.
“If we took the path of peace, people could work again, send their children back to school. The solution is among ourselves – the people of Sudan. There should be no distinctions among us.”
A home reduced to rubble
In the dusty remains of a once-bustling neighbourhood in Al Geneina, Um Adam stands where her home once was. The house was destroyed in the early days of the conflict.
In its place is a shelter she has built from branches, plastic sheeting and sheer determination.
“I’m tired”
When airstrikes and heavy fighting reached her home in Nyala, 35-year-old Zainab had no choice but to flee. She made the journey to West Darfur with her four children, injured and alone. Her husband was missing, and she still doesn’t know what happened to him.
To begin with, Zainab and her children found shelter with her mother. Later, Zainab received support from one of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)’s community access centres, which helped her buy materials to build a basic shelter and provide somewhere safe for her children to sleep.
“This centre gave me hope when I had nothing,” she says. “I used the support to build a shelter and buy mats and a mattress for my children. I prepared a place for them to sleep.”
Now, she washes clothes to pay rent and put food on the table.
“Some days I find work, some days I don’t,” she says. “I’m tired. I had surgery and my hand is damaged. I have no other way to provide for my children.”
Her children, aged between 9 and 13, have come to depend on the centre – not just for material support, but as a rare source of stability in a time of unimaginable upheaval.
“Now I have no one left”
When fighting reached Mariam’s home in Al Geneina at the start of the war, she lost her entire family in a single moment.
“Five of my children died in the attack,” she says. “My daughter, the eldest, was just 11. The others were 10, 7, 5… My youngest was only a toddler.”
Mariam herself was severely injured. “I was hit in the head and lost my hearing on one side. I also lost my eyesight. I had blood coming out of my mouth. I still can’t sleep at night,” she says.
“My husband was killed in the last war, years ago. Now I have no-one left.”
After her injury, relatives helped her get medical care. When she had recovered enough, her youngest surviving son brought her to a damaged house, where they now live in limbo.
Mariam found some relief through NRC’s access centre in Al Geneina – a lifeline for displaced people like her who have nowhere else to turn.
“This centre helps everyone – the weak, the blind, those who have no-one.”
A place of safety
In Al Geneina, Protection Project Manager Nerissa Nicholas and her team have spent the past two years supporting people like Mariam, Zainab and Khaled – people forced to flee violence, often arriving injured, alone or in shock.
Many found help through NRC’s community access centres. These are spaces offering protection, support, and referrals to shelter, food, medical care and legal assistance.
The centres have become vital protection hubs, especially for women and young people. They connect people to urgent support and help prevent harmful coping strategies like early marriage or child labour. At their busiest, some centres are seeing up to 2,000 people a day.
A destroyed house in Al Geneina, West Darfur.
The stories above are not isolated stories. They are the daily reality for millions of Sudanese people – parents trying to feed their children, women searching for safety, families grieving unspeakable losses. The war has stolen their homes, their livelihoods, and their loved ones.
What remains is their strength, and their message to the world. There is still time to act. But only if we choose to listen.
*SOURCE: the Norwegian Refugee Council. Go to ORIGINAL: https://www.nrc.no/feature/2025/we-just-survive–the-lives-shattered-by-the-war-in-sudan
2025 Human Wrongs Watch
Discover more from HUMAN WRONGS WATCH
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Baher Kamal
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
Leave a comment