‘We have nothing’: Endless pain for displaced civilians fleeing Sudan war

The most recent arrival from Heglig is in Kosti, Sudan, where the flow of displaced people flees the conflict there is in no sign of slowing.

After its rival, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), withdrew from the area in early December, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the strategic Heglig oilfield in West Kordofan province.

Nearly 1,700 displaced people, the majority of them women and children, escaped the southern region’s fighting and the lack of basic necessities.

Some of them had the good fortune to board trucks as they escaped their nearby towns and villages. The Gos Alsalam displacement camp in Kosti, a city in the White Nile province, is where the displaced people made their way home after a long journey.

An elderly woman who appeared frail and exhausted said, “We left without anything; we just took some clothes.”

The arrivals at the camp are greeted with incredibly harsh humanitarian conditions. Tents are being pitched in a hurry, but the humanitarian needs of the displaced people increase as the number increases. Yet, even the bare minimum can’t be covered by human assistance.

Nothing, no blankets, no sheets, etc. A displaced elderly woman called her, “We are old people.

I gave birth in the street, I say.

14 million people have been forced to flee their homes in a desperate attempt to get safety and shelter from the intense fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives as a result of nearly three years of conflict between the RSF and SAF.

In what the UN describes as the largest humanitarian crisis in history, 21 million people across the nation are suffering from acute hunger.

Umm Azmi and her newborn child are seated in a small corner of the Gos Alsalam camp. She recalled how she unaided herself on the road after being overtaken by labor.

The mother said, “I tried for nine months, but I gave birth in the street. The situation is very challenging.”