Personal and human stories of Sudanese people hope admist the war

The article below was originally going to be published on May 15th. But as more research was done and videos and audio was collected, it was not complete. Now it is but the visuals below is only a fraction of the countless personal and human stories of Sudanese people struggling to survive and fighting to live given the nightmare that Khartoum and other sudanese regions in Western Darfur are still going through.

No one wishes war on innoncent people nor their worst enemies. Everyone agrees and knows how destructive wars are for whole societies and men, women and children caught up in the crossfire. Urban warfare has been one of the most destructive and traumatizing of methods of warfare that traps hundreds of thousands and at times millions in a city and capital cities under siege as we have seen with Beirut in 1975, Kabul in 1979, Baghdad in 1991 and 2003, Mosul, Damascus, Kiev 2022 and now Khartoum in 2023. For two months, Khartoum has been under siege beginning in April 15, 2023, which came as a shock to many city residents, visitors and travelers used to a peaceful metropolis. Residential neighborhoods, hospitals and clinics, apartment blocks and power stations have been bombed as both the army and RSF try to push one another out of the city. In the end neither side will win and the ordinary people have stayed out of the physical fight between both sides in Khartoum and the few other cities where RSF and army are clashing. The Sudanese people inspite of the war in Khartoum and Darfur and having to flee to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Chad, return to their homes abroad and the residents who remain in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan have not given up hope. They are hopeful of returning home once the war ends and helping to rebuilding the country. Not to mention Sudan eventually returning to normalacy and further develop the country in the long term. There are still doctors who take great risks to deliver babies, store owners and bakers who do their darndest to deliver some food, needed supplies to the residents and ordinary Sudanese who risks their lives to document the destruction going on around them, the incredible survival of city and rural residents and still hang onto their humanity, sanity and well being despite the choas. As fate would have, Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kodofani who just released his latest film Goodbye Julia, about two Sudanese families confronting the earlier war and lost right before South Sudanese independence in 2011, had just won Cannes' film selection for this year's Cannes Film Festival on April 14th placing Sudan the first time on the map and radar of global film making. Before Kordofani, another Sudanese film and director AMjad Alala's film You will Die at Twenty recieved international buzz on the growing list of Sudanese films and stories. Before Kordofan could fully celebrate the movie and his team's achievements, on April 15th the war began in Khartoum between the Army and RSF militia. The Sudanese film industry is gradually trying to come back to what it was in the 1960s and 70s when the country was a major hub of local filmmaking and right before political events strangled local film talents. Kordofani, his team and fellow Sudanese filmmakers, actors and actresses are still carrying on and are aiding families and friends back home and keeping the focus on their homeland. There are the resistance committees from 2019 revolution providing help and aid still and the non political, humanitarians both Sudanese and international providing aid and assistance to refugees. There are Sudanese in the United States, Europe, Qatar, Australia, etc seeking and trying to provide aid to the men, women and children on the ground with help from local cities, community outreach and drives. Below in Arabic and English as the personal and human stories of Sudanese people of their lives, families and hope and dreams for Sudan when the war ends and the future.

Al Jazeera correspondent Hiba Morgan has been reporting exhaustively from Khartoum since the war began in April 15th. She has been reporting from Khartoum for over a decade and recent events for her is deeply personal as she shares her story.

Sky News Arabic Sudanese correspondent Yousra Elbagir embraces her uncle while interviewing evacuees from Sudan

Egyptian vlogger Ahmed El Badawi had been visiting Sudan as part of his travels to Egypt's souther neighbor when the war broke out. He chronicled his experience through the first few days of the war, his own ardous journey to leave the city and reach the Egyptian/Sudanese border and eventual return home to Egypt. He was interviewed by Al Arabiyah Masr (Egypt) after his return from Sudan.