This week in al-Afad camp in Sudan, where hundreds of families have arrived after fleeing the fall of el-Fasher, I sat with a mother who had travelled thousands of kilometres with her five-year-old daughter and elderly mother. Her little girl had undergone brain surgery in a military hospital before they were displaced. Now she sits quietly beside her mother – docile, detached, no longer playing as children should. The mother spoke of being beaten, of bodies left along the road, of people too weak to go on, crawling and building makeshift trenches to escape detection by drones. Most of the men were killed or prevented from leaving. Somehow she made it to al-Afad, but tears fell from her eyes as she traced her daughter’s scar and spoke of December – of whether she could reach a hospital in time for her daughter’s next appointment.Her story is not unique. Since April 2023, nearly 10 million people have been displaced within Sudan in the largest displacement crisis in the world while more than four million have fled across borders. Across Darfur and the Kordofans, entire communities are being uprooted, civilians targeted and essential services destroyed.After an 18-month siege, the fall of el-Fasher has unleashed new …
