Sudan is in crisis.
In April 2023, a brutal conflict broke out in western Sudan which has killed thousands, and left millions in dire need of humanitarian assistance, with women and girls bearing the worst of the war. So far, more than 28,000 people have been killed, 33,000 injured and 12 million displaced, making Sudan the world’s largest displacement crisis.
The conflict has also propagated the world’s largest hunger crisis, with famine declared in parts of the country and 26 million people facing severe hunger. As fighting shows no signs of abating, the future of Sudan remains bleak and uncertain, and women and girls are in unimaginable danger.
Please donate to our emergency appeal today so that CARE can continue to provide support to those who urgently need it. Your donation could help provide clean water, food supplies and medicine.
Sudan crisis: Impact on women and girls
“What’s happening in Sudan is a war on women and girls” says Mohamed Tijani, CARE’s Head of Office in South Darfur.
“It’s mostly women that we see in our clinics, mothers and their small, malnourished children. It’s women that we see in the displacement sites across Darfur. It is almost all women and children who are crossing the border into Chad. They travel so far with nothing, often with little but their small children on their backs. I hear their stories every day, of the horrors they faced while searching for safety, of their long, gruelling journeys, of the hunger and malnutrition their families have endured.”
“How do I explain war to my children?”
34-year-old Nima is one of these women forced to flee. Whenever they hear a loud or unexpected noise in the refugee camp, her daughters Maysam (10), Baisam (6), and Maysoun (4) sprint back to their small hut made from mud, sand, and corrugated iron. A gate shuts with a loud bang, a donkey starts yelling loudly, a car hits a pothole, or a pot is dropped on the floor and echoes through the otherwise quiet refugee camp. The girls yell for their mother and hide.
They fled together from their hometown Al-Fashir in Darfur, Sudan, to Chad in June 2023.
I try to calm them down, but it is not always easy to make them feel safe when I do not feel safe”
- says Nima, holding her youngest child, six-month-old Cherif, who was born in the refugee camp. Her daughters know first-hand what war looks like. “They came to our home late in the evening, and my husband was shot in the shoulder. I tried bandaging the wound with whatever I could find, and then we all started running. They were entering our neighbours’ and friends’ houses, shooting at everyone.”
Their journey to Chad took five days on foot, across the dry plain. Food and water were often nowhere to be found. On good days, they encountered a village where they got something to eat and drink.
“My husband was bleeding a lot. We just walked and followed the group. We did not know we were going to Chad. We were just running away from the explosions and shooting. When we finally arrived in Chad, I was very happy and relieved. For a second, I forgot the fear,” Nima says.
Yet the fear soon crept back in. And the memories of what they endured haunt not only her but her children.
“My six-year-old still has nightmares every night. She yells ‘Mommy, they are coming to kill us. We have to run.’”
The girls ask Nima a lot of questions.
“But how do I explain war to them? What do I answer when they ask me what they did wrong and why they are being hunted? I do not know. This is war!”
Nima’s story is sadly not unique; the 12 million displaced by Sudan’s deadly conflict each have harrowing testimonies to tell.
How you can help
CARE’s team in Sudan have already helped over a million people with humanitarian assistance since the beginning of last year. But the need is overwhelming, far beyond the support available. Your support today could help provide clean water, food supplies and medicine to those who urgently need it.
With kind thanks to the Strathspey Charitable Trust for generously matching donations from our supporters up to a total value of £15,000.