They attacked in the morning. “We ran to escape,” says a woman who had been caring for her children and a sick mother who could not walk. A harrowing journey to the relative safety of the Nuba range of South Kordofan followed. “I carried my mother on a donkey cart. When we were near the mountains, we stopped to bury her. My two brothers were shot and killed.”
The woman is one of an estimated 11 million people displaced by a Sudanese Armed Forces–Rapid Support Forces war that has spread across the country since April 2023. Hundreds of thousands like her are seeking refuge in this southern state, according to the Sudanese Relief and Rehabilitation Agency.
I carried my mother on a donkey cart. When we were near the mountains, we stopped to bury her. | Illustration © Dora Naliesna/MSF
The Nuba region experienced waves of displacement during a decades-long conflict but is now largely controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North. So, many of the people displaced then are displaced now, increasing their vulnerability.
Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is providing medical care and essential items in five camps. It is also collecting testimonies revealing more about the violence forcing people from their homes.
“We took what we could and fled,” says a woman in her late 50s who walked five days without food until she and her family reached Al Hadra. “We lost two children on the way. . . . I don’t know where they are, there is no phone.” An airplane bombing would kill another sibling, only 15 years old. “I was in the bush collecting woods for shelter. My daughter had gone to the borehole to fetch water. . . . I rushed to my tent and later [the villagers] brought [her] body to me.”
Another woman explains how she and others in the town of Dilling survived. “We went to the forest . . . to sleep and use the river as protection. We leaned on the riverbank so the bullets would not hit us. When the shootings stopped, we would rush to the house to get food and water for the children. During an attack, I saw a mother who was breastfeeding. They took her boy and threw him away.”
A man in his 50s says soldiers entered Habila in North Kordofan to kill all the “black people.”
They captured a big part of my family: 13 people, all men. The militia gathered them in one house and shot them all. I ran away. | Illustration © Dora Naliesna/MSF
The man fled to Tungul in South Kordofan where he received food, but without the availability of a health service, he fled again, to the camp in Korgul. “I feel safe. We want to stay here.”
For women fleeing violence, access to healthcare is challenging.
I was in the market when they came. I tried to defend myself, but they abused me and beat my chest. I still feel the pain today. | Illustration © Dora Naliesna/MSF
The woman tried to get treatment but did not have money for an x-ray.
Another woman in her 30s says she did not eat for two days.
I was collecting leaves to cook them. To get medical care, I had to sneak out in the bushes to avoid checkpoints. | Illustration © Dora Naliesna/MSF
During the rainy season, the woman and her child received treatment for malaria and malnutrition at the MSF clinic.
The influx of people to the Nuba region is making an impact on local communities. A poor harvest in 2023 combined with difficulties accessing basic services and a lack of humanitarian assistance led to widespread hunger inside and outside the camps.
When I arrived at the camp, I did not have milk to breastfeed. My child was sick and kept on crying. I gave him herbs and prayed to God. | Illustration © Dora Naliesna/MSF
Basic health and hospital care in the Nuba region is inconsistent and insufficient, often extremely so. Where care is available, distance and insecurity often make it inaccessible. An almost complete lack of protection services is also concerning, given the levels of violence, the separation of families and the lack of shelter.
