Mohammed Ibrahim had just settled in Wad Madani, where he had found refuge after abandoning his home and possessions in war-ravaged Khartoum, when the fighting forced him to leave everything a second time.
Like Mr. Ibrahim and his relatives, thousands of families who fled the deadly fighting which for eight months pitted the Sudanese army against the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) in Khartoum, had found refuge in Wad Madani, a town located 180 kilometers south of the capital of Sudan.
The state of al-Jazeera, until recently spared from violence, had become a sanctuary for half a million people with Wad Madani, its capital, serving as a “humanitarian hub”, according to the UN.
But recently, the paramilitaries, who control the majority of the capital, have advanced along the highway that connects the capital to Wad Madani, taking village after village.
On December 15, they attacked the town and Mr. Ibrahim and his people had to flee again.
On Tuesday, after four days of intense fighting in the capital of al-Jazeera, around 300,000 people had already fled the state, many “on foot, in panic”, reports the UN.
“This is a human tragedy of immense proportions, which worsens the already terrible humanitarian crisis in the country,” the UN migration agency (IOM) warned on Thursday.
In the country at war since April 15, where the forces of the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and those of his deputy who became a rival and boss of the FSR, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, oppose each other, many did not know where to go.
Escape on foot
Mr. Ibrahim and his family chose the town of Sennar, 100 kilometers south of Wad Madani, but they could not find accommodation, he told AFP, looking sorry.
Others, like Abdelrahim Imam, 44, found refuge in al-Faw, 75 kilometers from Wad Madani.
He and his family are staying “with a friend,” he told AFP, several months after abandoning his house in Khartoum.
The conflict left 12,000 dead according to the UN, a figure that is surely highly underestimated as entire parts of the country are cut off from the world.
It has also displaced 7.1 million people, including 1.5 million in neighboring countries, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said Thursday, describing “the largest displacement crisis in the world.” .
The IOM stressed “the need for a ceasefire to avoid a larger catastrophe.”
Since the start of the war, the two rival camps have accused each other of attacking civilians.
As the paramilitaries entered the city, it was emptied of its means of transport.
Omar Hussein, 65, had to walk ten kilometers before finding a bus for him and his family.
“Liberation”
“We are just trying to get to Gedaref”, 240 kilometers further east, he explains to AFP. “We have family with whom we will be able to stay.”
In Gedaref as in Sennar, “the humanitarian situation is disastrous”, warns the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), warning of the “worsening crisis of forced displacement”.
With 70% of hospitals out of service in combat zones, the UN is alarmed by a “health system already at the limit of its capacities” and this week denounced widespread human rights violations during nearby fighting. by Wad Madani.
On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called for the “protection of all civilians” and to guarantee them “safe passage”.
At the same time, the World Food Program (WFP) was forced to temporarily suspend food aid in parts of al-Jazeera state, which had become a “battleground”.
In Sudan, around 18 million people are acutely food insecure, according to the WFP.
General Daglo welcomed on Tuesday the “liberation” of Wad Madani “from the vestiges of the old regime”, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of “the glorious revolution of December” 2018.
Five years ago, the first in a series of massive demonstrations took place which put an end in April 2019 to the thirty years of dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir.
The fragile democratic transition that followed was derailed in 2021, when Generals Daglo and Burhane staged a coup to eject civilians from power before turning their guns on each other.