‘Every Single Person I Know Already Knows Someone Who Has Died’: The Reality of War in Sudan

Four years ago, at the start of the Sudanese revolution, British Vogue interviewed doctor and poet Marwa Babiker Elamin about the peaceful protests against the government. A few months later, they spoke again, when regime forces massacred protestors in a horrific and tragic surprise attack. In the years since successfully overthrowing ex-president Omar Al-Bashir, Sudan has struggled to find stability and remained under a violent military regime. Now, two factions of that regime, the Sudanese armed forces, loyal to Al-Bashir, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), loyal to former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (or Hemedti), are caught in a power struggle that has triggered war in the capital Khartoum. Below, Elamin explains the reality of its impact.

On April 15, I woke up at 7 a.m. in Connecticut to hundreds of WhatsApp messages. It was the afternoon in Sudan, and all hell had broken loose. I saw videos of missiles being fired and buildings collapsing. My messages were full of pictures of dead bodies, people injured, a lot of blood. It was really traumatic. Khartoum was being destroyed. People were dying in the streets.

The day before, there were talks about the army and the RSF. Sudan was supposed to be in the process of transitioning from military government to civilian rule. That agreement would merge the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). I wasn’t happy with that agreement, as it would’ve kept the same military leaders around with no accountability for their previous crimes. Nevertheless, the RSF were happy, but the army was stalling signing. I was in a meeting with five Sudanese community leaders in the U.S., Dr. Al-Baqir Mukhtar, Dr. Bakry Eljack Elmedni, Dr. Nada Fadul, Areig Elhag and Dr. Suliman Baldo, discussing whether war was a real possibility. Although people saw it coming, we couldn’t believe it when it actually broke out. Overnight, Sudan changed. Now we are in a new reality.

It started just two weeks ago, but every single person I know already knows someone who has died in this war. The stories are horrifying. A one-year-old child got killed because a small missile fell on their home. A woman was about to give birth; she got an ambulance and her father accompanied her, but as they got to the hospital, the ambulance was showered with bullets. They were able to get her inside the hospital. The baby was okay but she and her father died.