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DUBAI: Freelance Sudanese photographer Faiz Abubakr documents the crisis in his home country that began in April 2023 when violence broke out between rival military factions.

The Sudanese armed forces, led by Sudan's de facto president Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, have since been fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti.

Despite the enormous danger, Abubakr felt compelled to take to the streets with his camera to document the catastrophe unfolding in his hometown of Khartoum and to record the impact of the generals' bitter rivalry on the beleaguered population.

“Many questions ran through my mind about the lives of these residents who fled the scourge of war on a daily basis, whose homes and belongings were destroyed by fire, and who died tragically,” Abubakr told Arab News. “These questions revolved around how they spent their days amid the noise of planes and explosions that forced them to leave their homes, and how they were haunted by the curses of displacement.”

According to the UN, Sudan is currently experiencing the world's largest internal displacement crisis. Millions of people have been forced to flee their homes, including Abubakr, who initially sought refuge with his family in Egypt.

After a few months, he returned to Sudan to work for several news agencies until he was wounded, he said, by an RSF gunman. During his recovery, he and his family moved to Kassala in eastern Sudan, near the border with Eritrea.

Abubakr's clients included AFP, Le Monde and the New York Times. Before the conflict, he received the 2022 World Press Photo Award in the “Africa, Single Images” category. Now he is just trying to survive.

“The situation is much worse than before,” said Abubakr. “Life is very difficult due to a lack of food and livelihoods. There is a risk of famine in all parts of the country.”

Even during his displacement, Abubakr continued to photograph the conflict unfolding around him, particularly its impact on civilians forced to flee their homes.

“I try to document their stories, but it is very difficult to take photos for security reasons,” he said. “I lost everything during the war, including most of my photography equipment. My mental state is deteriorating.”

Abubakr is not alone. The conflict is having a devastating impact on the health and well-being of Sudan's civilian population, according to a new report by Doctors Without Borders, whose staff work in eight Sudanese countries.

The population has been “subjected to horrific violence, succumbed to widespread fighting and survived repeated attacks, abuse and exploitation” by the warring parties, the report says.

“Violence in Sudan is showing no signs of abating,” writes Vickie Hawkins, Executive Director of MSF UK, in the report. “In fact, it is escalating at a pace that exceeds our ability to process, document and respond to the daily events our teams and patients in Sudan are experiencing.”

Based on medical and operational data collected by MSF between April 15, 2023 and May 15 this year, the report describes the patterns of violence and abuse observed by MSF teams and the devastating impact of the fighting on public health.

In the report, an unnamed employee at Al-Nao Hospital in Omdurman, west of Khartoum, described the aftermath of the recent artillery attack on a residential area of ​​the city.

“About 20 people arrived and died immediately afterwards. Some arrived already dead,” said the health worker. “Most of them arrived with their hands already dangling or their legs amputated. In some cases, only a small piece of skin was holding two limbs together.”

“A patient came with an amputated leg, his carer followed him, carrying the missing limb in his hand.”

According to MSF, between August 15, 2023 and April 30 this year, Al-Nao Hospital treated 6,776 patients for injuries caused by armed violence – an average of 26 people per day.

“After 15 months of conflict, the warring parties are showing a complete disregard for civilian lives,” Kyle McNally, an MSF project coordinator who was recently deployed in Sudan’s southwestern town of Nyala, told Arab News.

“They claim to represent these people and to fight for them. In fact, they are conducting their hostilities in a way that constitutes a war against the Sudanese people. We are witnessing serious violations of civil protection and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.

“Hospitals and medical staff have not been spared. We are seeing numerous attacks on health facilities. The hospital system and the health system have been completely destroyed by the fighting.”

According to the UN, Sudan is facing a worsening food crisis. Around 25 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Among them are over 14 million children, of whom three million under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition.

At least ten million people have been forced to flee their homes to escape the violence, according to newly released data from the United Nations International Organization for Migration.

“The conflict in Sudan has become one of the largest refugee crises in the world,” Alyona Synenko, Africa spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Arab News from Nairobi.

“We are talking about a quarter of the country's population who have fled their homes. People have lost their homes and no longer have access to the essentials of life.”

In particular, the displacement of farmers has led to the collapse of Sudan's agricultural sector and exacerbated food shortages. “Food production has suffered enormously and we are witnessing a worsening food crisis,” said Synenko.

“Hundreds of people are calling us in despair because they don't know what happened to their loved ones. More and more families are being separated and no longer have any way of contacting each other.”

During the first half of 2024, the ICRC worked in partnership with the Sudan Red Crescent to provide emergency assistance and essential services, but the security situation, administrative challenges and difficulties in accessing communities hampered efforts.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, where there are repeated allegations of ethnic cleansing and attacks on hospitals.

“We have seen complete destruction throughout the city of Nyala, which was once the second largest city in Sudan,” said MSF’s McNally.

“The entire northern part of the city is almost completely destroyed. Basic services are lacking everywhere. There has been virtually no international humanitarian aid in this part of the country.”

“You see how people are really struggling. There are the residents who have stayed, and then there are refugee camps in the area with hundreds of thousands of people. You see a lot of people who are incredibly desperate and who are currently receiving very little help.”

According to Abubakr, Sudanese civilians suffer particularly badly in the areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces. The paramilitary group now controls most of Khartoum, Al-Jazirah, Kordofan and the vast western region of Darfur.

Of particular concern are reports of sexual and gender-based violence from across the country, but particularly from Darfur.

An MSF survey of 135 survivors of sexual violence treated by MSF teams in refugee camps in Chad between July and December 2023 found that 90 percent were abused by an armed perpetrator, 50 percent were abused in their own home and 40 percent were raped by multiple attackers.

Abubakr remembers being haunted as he watched his neighbors in Khartoum leave their homes, leaving behind places and possessions that were an integral part of their identities, not knowing if they would ever return. He never believed that he, too, would leave the city of his birth.

Now all he has left are the memories and photos of his home, which he hopes to reclaim one day.

“I see that the person does not inhabit the place so much as the place inhabits him,” said Abubakr. “The images and scenes of my home have never left my mind. I want to return there again.”