EYEWITNESS

Fatma and her mother Radia

Fatma, aged 17, and her mother Radia’s village in Sudan was brutally attacked.

“People came at 4 o’clock in the morning and burnt down our village and killed people. This is why we fled to the border,” explains Radia.

Radia told us that 60 huts in her village were burnt to the ground and her daughter Fatma, was badly burnt in the fire.

“People were dying like sticks, some of them were burnt by the fire and some of them were shot,” says Radia.

Deeply traumatised by the experience, Fatma could barely talk. HI’s teams have been providing her with psychological and rehabilitation care in the MSF field hospital in Adré.

“Every day we are thinking about what happened over here, it’s like a nightmare. We are thinking about our house, our village, the trees, the forest, we’re thinking about it a lot. We have hope that maybe tomorrow we will go back or the day after tomorrow, we always have hope.”

Radia Abdelkarim Ahmat

Sawakine and her mother Toma

Early one morning in June 2023, an explosion hit the home of Sawakine and her family in El Geneina, Sudan. Sawakine’s father, her younger sister and her older brother were killed instantly. The rest of her family was badly injured, including Sawakine.

“We took our breakfast, then we were sitting down on the mat when the explosion came and fell upon us,” says her mother, Toma.

Sawakine, aged 8, sustained a spinal cord injury that left her paralysed from the waist down. She is also deeply traumatised. HI’s team have been supporting Sawakine, doing rehabilitation exercises with her every day.

At first, the little girl was not able to move at all. She is now making some progress and can make some movements. HI’s teams will keep on supporting Sawakine and are hopeful that one day, soon, she will be able to walk again.

Abdulatif, Arais and Assadik

​​​​​​​"We were all shot in El Geneine. We all knew each other before we came here to Chad. It’s good to be with friends in hospital.” 

Abdulatif Jakob Dallah

Nawali

Nawali, aged 24, has been paralysed since childhood due to malaria. She used to be independent and have a tricycle to move around back in Sudan but it was stolen when her village was attacked.

“The bullets were coming from everywhere, there was one explosion just next to our house. We were scared and decided to flee. We escaped with only the clothes we were wearing,” Nawali said.

In the chaos of fleeing, the family was separated and Nawali found herself alone with her grandmother who walks with a stick. For one and a half hours, Nawali crawled on the side of the road to try and flee as her grandmother slowly walked on ahead. Nawali finally managed to call a family member who came back and helped her, carrying her in a wheelbarrow.

Now in Chad, Nawali lives in a stuffy makeshift shelter in the huge makeshift camp on the outskirts of Adré. She has to drag herself 20 metres across the ground to reach the toilet, which is totally inaccessible for a person with reduced mobility.

Amina and Firdoz

Firdoz, 22, and Amina, 28, fled when their village was attacked in Sudan.

“The rebels came and attacked El Geneine. They did not differentiate between men, women and children. When they fired their rockets you will see ten or twenty people die at once. Because of these bombs and bullets nobody would stay in the town. So we had no choice but to move and run to the border. They followed us and were firing after the people at the back of the group," says Firdoz.

“It is hard for the women. It’s the women who had to carry the children and run away. And here it’s very hard to find something to eat. Also if a woman goes out into the bush in Sudan they will grab her and take her off. Here it's safer but there are also problems.” she adds.

“We lost a lot of our friends and parents. We lost our mothers, our fathers, our brothers our children.” 

Firdoz Yahya Adam

Raouba

“The war brought us here to Chad. They burned down all our houses and our village.”

Mohamad

Mohamad, 32, cares for his 10-year-old son who is paralysed.

“I came here to Chad because there is no security in my home area. My village was burned down. I lost my arm after I was shot on the first day of the conflict.”   ​​​​​​​                                         

Nazik and her daughter, Zahra

​​​​​​​"The conflict meant that I had to leave. There is no work here. In Sudan I was a primary school teacher. I liked to teach Arabic and Common Relations. I can’t teach right now but in the future I would like to.” 

Multazim, 12

Informal refugee settlement, Adré, Chad.