11 hours agoShareSaveHeba BitarBBC Eye Investigations, el-GeneinaShareSave”She left no last words. She was dead when she was carried away,” says Hafiza quietly, as she describes how her mother was killed in a city under siege in Darfur, during Sudan’s civil war, which began exactly two years ago.The 21-year-old recorded how her family’s life was turned upside down by her mother’s death, on one of several phones the BBC World Service managed to get to people trapped in the crossfire in el-Fasher.Under constant bombardment, el-Fasher has been largely cut off from the outside world for a year, making it impossible for journalists to enter the city. For safety reasons, we are only using the first names of people who wanted to film their lives and share their stories on the BBC phones.Hafiza describes how she suddenly found herself responsible for her five-year-old brother and two teenage sisters.Their father had died before the start of the war, which has pitted the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and caused the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.HafizaThe two rivals had been allies – coming to power together in a coup – but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.Hafiza’s home is the last major city controlled by the military in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, and has been under siege by the RSF for the past 12 months.In August 2024, a shell hit the market where her mother had gone to sell household goods.”Grief is very difficult, I still can’t bring myself to visit her workplace,” says Hafiza in one of her first video messages after receiving her phone, shortly after her mother’s death.”I spend my time crying alone at home.”Both sides in the war have been accused of war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians – which they deny. The RSF has also previously denied accusations from the US and human rights groups that it has committed a genocide against non-Arab groups in other parts of Darfur after it seized control of those areas.The RSF controls passage in and out the city and sometimes allows civilians to leave, so Hafiza managed to send her siblings to stay with family in a neutral area.But she stayed to try to earn money to support them.In her messages, she describes her days distributing blankets and water to displaced people living in shelters, helping at a community kitchen and supporting a breast cancer awareness group in return for a little money to help her survive.Her nights are spent alone.”I remember the places where my mother and siblings used to sit, I feel broken,” she adds.HafizaIn almost every video 32-year-old Mostafa sent us, the sound of shelling and gunfire can be heard in the background.”We endure relentless artillery shelling, both day and night, by the RSF,” he says.One day, after visiting family, he returned to find his house near the city centre had been hit by shells – the roof and walls were damaged – and looters had ransacked what was left.”Everything was turned upside down. Most houses in our neighbourhood have been looted,” he says, blaming the RSF.While Mostafa was volunteering at a shelter for displaced people, the area came under intense attack. He kept his camera rolling as he hid, flinching at each explosion.”There is no safe place in el-Fasher,” he says. “Even refugee camps are being bombed with artillery shells.”Death can strike anyone, anytime, without warning… by a bullet, shelling, hunger or thirst.”In another message, he talks about the lack of clean water, describing how people drink from sources contaminated with sewage.Both Mostafa and 26-year-old Manahel, who also received a BBC phone, volunteered at community kitchens funded by donations from Sudanese people living elsewhere.The UN has warned of famine in the city, something that has already happened at the nearby Zamzam camp, which is home to more than 500,000 displaced people.Many people cannot get to the market “and if they go, they find high prices”, explains Manahel.”Every family is equal now – there is no rich or poor. People can’t afford the basic necessities like food.”ManahelAfter cooking meals such as rice and stew, they deliver the food to people in shelters. For many, it is the only meal they will have for the day.When the war started, Manahel had just finished university, where she studied Sharia and law.As the fighting reached el-Fasher, she moved with her mother and six siblings to a safer area, further away from the front line.”You lose your home, everything you own and find yourself in a new place with nothing,” she says.But her father refused to leave their house. Some neighbours had entrusted him with their belongings, and he decided to stay to protect them – a decision that cost him his life.She says he was killed by RSF artillery in September 2024.ManahelSince the siege began a year ago, almost 2,000 people have been killed or injured in el-Fasher, according to the UN.After sunset, people rarely leave their …
