I live on a forgotten island of the civil war in Sudan.
When the world focuses its attention on the war, it looks to the horrific fighting around the capital in Khartoum or throughout the Darfur region. But the conflict is felt far beyond the site of these clashes.
I am a civil society leader in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state. Our region – which is administered not by the government of Sudan but by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North – hasn't been a centre of fighting between the two main warring parties, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
Instead, the war has come to us through a steady influx of civilians who have fled the battle zones. In the Nuba Mountains, we see the war. It is written on the faces of desperate people cast from their homes with barely a hope for the future.
Family connections
They began arriving in May 2023, one month after the war started. They came on buses, motorbikes, donkeys, and on foot. Many have family connections to the Nuba Mountains. Some are seeking a route out of the country — across the border into South Sudan, on to Juba, and then, if they are lucky, to a safer haven like Uganda. Most are women and children.
I am part of a group of civil society leaders in Heiban County in the eastern region of the Nuba Mountains who, in cooperation with our local county commissioner, created an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Centre in a village called Dleir.
We do what we can to assist the arrivals, organising trauma-healing and peace-building workshops; sporting and entertainment activities for the boys and girls; and support programmes for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
The exact number of IDPs who have arrived in the Nuba Mountains is difficult to ascertain due to the complexity of displacement tracking and the fluid nature of such movements. But in the Dleir camp, we have recorded 28,591 arrivals since the war began, which we estimate could be about half of the IDPs who have arrived in the Nuba Mountains.
Local communities here have tried to help by providing food and shelter to the IDPs. But they are suffering, too. Last year’s harvest in Heiban County was mostly a failure due to a poor rainy season and extensive locust infestation. We are now in the midst of a new rainy season, which we pray will deliver a bountiful harvest in November. In the best of times, the current moment on the calendar is a precarious time for food security.
Emergency intervention is required to save the lives of thousands of women and children. The IDPs need food, shelter, medicine, mosquito nets, and blankets. Our area has limited contact with the UN and international agencies. While the UN’s World Food Programme has provided food assistance to IDPs in other areas of the Nuba Mountains, we have yet to see the same level of help at the Dleir camp.
We know it will be difficult to receive the assistance we need. During the dry season, it can take up to two months for aid deliveries to make the obstacle-laden journey from South Sudan to the Nuba Mountains. The rainy season makes the trip nearly impossible. We propose that humanitarian aid be delivered by air. If the international will is there, it can happen.
Read more in Daily Maverick: SA’s midsummer drought takes its toll, but grain crop supply is not in jeopardy
I have spoken to many of the new arrivals – a group of 3,063 individuals arrived on 25 June in Dleir. They are traumatised and desperate. They are frustrated by their inability to communicate with family members in other regions of Sudan. The Nuba Mountains have extremely limited internet connectivity. We are bush communities, living without running water or electricity. The isolation has become an added burden for the IDPs at the Dleir camp.
The war has created this mess. We need a ceasefire desperately. The people of Nuba have always believed that Sudan needs to be united as one. We have always believed that we are one family.
I ask the world to treat the displaced persons from this war with understanding and care. Everyone across our planet – in Ukraine, in Syria, in Palestine, in the Congo – should be treated equally. Hunger is hunger wherever you are.
In your impulse to look away, I plead with you not to forget what is happening in the Nuba Mountains. DM
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