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DUBAI: Sudanese freelance photographer Faiz Abubakr has been documenting the crisis in his country that began in April 2023 when violence erupted between rival warring factions.

Sudan's armed forces, led by Sudan's de facto president, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, have since engaged the paramilitary Rapid Support Force under the command of Mohamed Hamdan Dagal, commonly known as Hemedti.

Despite the immense danger, Abubakr felt compelled to take to the streets with his camera to record the disaster unfolding in his hometown of Khartoum and the impact of the generals' bitter rivalry on its beleaguered citizens.

“Many questions ran through my mind about the lives of these residents who were fleeing the ravages of war every day, whose homes and possessions were destroyed by fire and who died tragically,” Abubakr told Arab News. “These questions were about how they spent their days surrounded by the roar of planes and explosions that forced them from their homes and were haunted by the curses of displacement.”

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

A few months later, he returned to Sudan to work for several news agencies until he was wounded, he said, by an RSF fighter. While he recovered, he and his family moved to Kassala, located in eastern Sudan, near the border with Eritrea.

Abubakr's clients included AFP, Le Monde and The New York Times. Before the conflict, he was the winner of the 2022 World Press Photo Award in the Africa Singles category. Now he's just trying to survive.

“The situation is much worse than before,” Abubakr said. “Life is very difficult due to lack of food and livelihood. The threat of hunger exists in all corners of the country.”

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

“I'm trying to document their stories, but taking pictures is very difficult for security reasons,” he said. “During the war, I lost everything, including most of my photography equipment. My psychological state is getting worse.”

Abubakr is not alone. The conflict has taken a devastating toll on the health and well-being of Sudanese civilians, according to a new report by Doctors Without Borders, which has staff in eight Sudanese states.

The population faced “horrendous levels of violence, succumbing to widespread fighting and surviving repeated attacks, abuse and exploitation” by warring parties, the report said.

“The violence in Sudan shows no signs of abating,” Vicky Hawkins, chief executive of MSF UK, wrote in the report. “In fact, it is escalating at a rate that is outpacing our ability to process, document and respond to the daily events that our teams and patients in Sudan face.”

The report is based on medical and operational data collected by MSF from 15 April 2023 to 15 May this year. It notes 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 health worker at Al Nao Hospital in Omdurman, west of Khartoum, described the effects of recent shelling on a residential area of ​​the city.

“About 20 people arrived and died immediately. Some arrived already dead,” said the medical worker. “Most of them came with already hanging arms or legs, already amputated. In some, only a small patch of skin holds the two limbs together.

“One patient came in with an amputated leg, his carers walking behind, carrying their missing limb in their hand.”

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

“After 15 months of conflict, the warring parties show a complete lack of respect for any civilian life,” Kyle McNally, an MSF project coordinator who was recently stationed in the southwestern Sudanese town of Nyala, told Arab News.

“These are the people they represent and fight for. Instead, it is really a war against the people of Sudan in the way they conduct their military operations. We see very flagrant violations of the protection of the civilian population and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.

“Hospitals and medical staff did not spare. We see many attacks on medical facilities. The hospital system and the health care system were completely destroyed by the fighting.”

According to the UN, Sudan is facing a deepening food crisis, with some 25 million people — including more than 14 million children, 3 million of whom are under the age of five who are acutely malnourished — in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

According to recently released figures from the UN's International Organization for Migration, at least 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes to escape the violence.

“The conflict in Sudan has become one of the largest displacement crises in the world,” Alyona Sinenko, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross for the African region, told Arab News from Nairobi.

“We are talking about a quarter of the country's population that left their homes. People have lost their homes and access to the necessary means of survival.”

The displacement of farmers, in particular, has led to the collapse of Sudan's agricultural sector, worsening food security. “Food production has been significantly affected, and we are seeing a worsening of the food crisis,” Sinenko said.

“Hundreds of people call us in despair because they don't know what happened to their loved ones. We have more and more families who are separated and have lost any possibility of contact with each other.'

During the first half of 2024, the ICRC worked with the Sudanese Red Crescent to provide emergency aid and basic services. However, his efforts were hampered by the security situation, administrative problems and difficulties in accessing the communities.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, where allegations of ethnic cleansing and attacks on hospitals have emerged.

“We've seen just complete devastation all over the city of Nyala, which used to be the second most populous city in Sudan,” said MSF's McNally.

“The entire northern half of the city is almost completely destroyed. You see a complete lack of basic services anywhere. There was practically no international humanitarian aid in this part of the country.

“You really see people struggling. You have the residents who are left behind, and you also have displaced persons camps in the surrounding area with hundreds of thousands of people. You see a lot of people who are incredibly desperate and there is very little help for them at the moment.'

According to Abubakr, Sudanese civilians are suffering particularly badly in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces. The militant group now controls most of Khartoum, El Jazira, 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 victims of sexual violence held in refugee camps in Chad by MSF teams between July and December 2023 found that 90 percent had been assaulted by an armed perpetrator. Fifty percent had been abused in their own home, and 40 percent had been raped by multiple assailants.

Abubakr recalls his neighbors in Khartoum leaving their homes, leaving places and things that were an integral part of their identity, not knowing if they would ever return. He never believed that he would also escape from the city of his birth.

Now, all that remains are memories and photographs of the home he hopes to reclaim one day.

“I see that a man does not inhabit a place as much as a place inhabits him,” said Abubakr. “The images and scenes of my home did not leave my memory. I want to go back to it again.”