Whenever the bombs would go off nearby, Sulaima Ishaq Elkhalifa would gather her four children, sister, husband and mother into one room of her house to recite the Koran and try to stave off her nightmare visions of their casualties. The day they almost became a reality, the whole house shook against her family’s screams. “We smelled the dust,” she describes over a shaky phone line from Kosti, Sudan. “There was so much dust.”
Sudan has experienced three multi-decade domestic wars since it achieved independence in 1956, all of which have taken place in its marginalised regions. Elkhalifa never expected another to break out in its capital, Khartoum. But when, in April this year, it did, the simmering tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) having reached a boiling point, she thought it would last a few hours, then a few days. When it intensified – the sounds of war echoing in her Omdurman home – and people around her prepared passports for Egypt, she thought they were overreacting. Even as she fled to Kosti, a city south of Khartoum, the day after the bomb fell next to her home, she didn’t take everything: “I thought, I’m going back in a few weeks. Maybe things will change.”
Elkhalifa can’t help but hope for the best, but as a human rights defender who has lived in Darfur conflict zones, she knows a return to normality will not be simple. And as general director of Sudan’s Unit for Combating Violence Against Women, so too does she know just how horrifically this conflict will affect women. It already has.
As she fled, Elkhalifa called the minister for social development: “It’s going to be an emergency for women,” was her message. At shelters and associations around Kosti, Elkhalifa set about training 57 volunteers on psychological first aid (a World Health Organization-endorsed disaster intervention that involves compassionate listening and providing coping strategies) while privately praying that “the worst” would not happen. But a few days later, she got a call: in Khartoum some Ethiopian girls had been raped.
“Every day, things got much worse,” Elkhalifa recalls. Echoing the atrocities of the 2003 Darfur genocide, “Most of [the sexual violence victims] are very young girls in Darfur and Bahri.” A colleague reported 25 cases of rape in Darfur by the RSF, before she had to flee to South Sudan when her own home was looted. Meanwhile, in Khartoum, women are disappearing. They leave to get groceries and do not return. Men released from local detention centres run by the RSF report seeing women inside, but the RSF deny these claims, despite evidence to the contrary.
Newer articles:
- Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) holds meeting with South Sudan delegation - 24/10/2023 08:53
- Sudan’s Conflict Echoes in South Sudan: Skyrocketing Food Prices and Surging Returnees - 24/10/2023 07:06
- Critical tasks required for conduct of South Sudan elections: RJMEC - 24/10/2023 06:29
- Uganda: traders furious over govt U-turn on South Sudan deal - 24/10/2023 05:01
- Sudan Armed Forces Chief Retires 'Defecting' Major General in Charge of Abyei - 24/10/2023 03:10
Older news items
- African countries examine ways to meet the continent’s strategic airlift needs - 24/10/2023 00:18
- South Sudan - Physical Access Constraints Map, 19 October 2023 - 20/10/2023 11:06
- South Sudanese male model Anei Dut among five men charged over 'rip on, rip off' shipping container bust that seized cocaine worth $100million - 20/10/2023 08:31
- South Sudan’s golden honey and Nilotica shea butter ready for market - 20/10/2023 06:14
- US Calls on Sudan’s Army, RSF to Cease Fighting Immediately - 20/10/2023 03:50
Latest news items (all categories):
- South Sudan needs ‘civic education’ before elections, says bishop - 16/01/2025 16:42
- South Sudan parties set to resume peace talks in Kenya - 16/01/2025 16:39
- Abandoned but not forgotten – the invisible crisis in South Sudan - 16/01/2025 16:35
- The SAF has committed barbaric atrocities against South Sudanese refugees in Wad Medani - 16/01/2025 16:27
- Syria 2025: The historical Syrian project: From revolution to a modern inclusive civil state - 16/01/2025 16:10
Random articles (all categories):
- Ethiopian forces hunt South Sudan gunmen who killed 208 in raid - 17/04/2016 22:12
- How Russia Is Fighting for Allies Among the Brics Countries Using 'Memory Diplomacy' [analysis] - 28/08/2023 01:10
- South Sudan slams U.S. threats of sanctions over stalled talks - 22/11/2017 08:24
- Sudanese Acting FM: Distinguished Organisation Of LDC5 Reflects Qatar's Interest In Sustainable Development Goals - 09/03/2023 01:03
- China yet to deploy up to 700 peacekeeping troops to violence-hit South Sudan - 10/09/2014 13:39
Popular articles:
- Who is the darkest person in the world, according to Guinness World Record? - 25/10/2022 02:34 - Read 61763 times
- No oil in troubled waters - 25/03/2014 15:02 - Read 22308 times
- School exam results in South Sudan show decline - 01/04/2012 17:58 - Read 21496 times
- NDSU student from South Sudan receives scholarship - In-Forum - 29/09/2012 01:44 - Read 19063 times
- Top 10 weakest currency exchange rates in Africa in 2023 - 19/07/2023 00:24 - Read 18819 times