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DUBAI: Sudanese freelance photographer Faiz Abubakr has documented the crisis in his homeland that began in April 2023, when violence erupted between rival military factions.

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

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 capture the impact of the generals' bitter rivalry on its beleaguered citizens.

“Many questions ran through my mind about the lives of these residents who daily fled the scourge of war, whose homes and belongings were consumed by fire and who died in tragic ways,” Abubakr told Arab News. “These questions related to how they spent their days amid the roar of airplanes and explosions, which forced them to abandon 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 refugee crisis, with millions forced to flee their homes, including Abubakr who initially sought refuge in Egypt with his family

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

Abubakr's clients had included AFP, Le Monde and The New York Times. Before the conflict, he was the recipient 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 supplies. There are threats of famine in all parts of the country.

Even on the run, Abubakr has continued to photograph the conflict unfolding around him, particularly its impact on civilians forced from their homes.

“I try to document their stories, but it's very difficult to photograph because of security reasons,” he said. “I lost everything during the war, including most of my photography equipment. My psychological condition is getting worse.”

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

The population has faced “horrendous levels of violence, succumbed to extensive fighting and survived repeated attacks, abuses and exploitation” by the warring parties, the report said.

“The violence in Sudan shows no sign of abating,” writes Vickie Hawkins, executive director of MSF UK, in the report. “In fact, it is intensifying at a rate that exceeds our ability to process, document and respond to the daily events that our teams and patients are experiencing in Sudan.”

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-Naos Hospital in Omdurman, west of Khartoum, described the aftermath of the latest shelling in a residential area of ​​the city.

“About 20 people came and died right after. Some arrived already dead, say the medical staff. “Most of them came with already hanging hands or legs, already amputated. Some have only a small patch of skin holding two limbs together.

“A patient arrived with an amputated leg, their caregiver followed, with their missing limb in hand.”

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

“After 15 months of conflict, the warring parties show a complete lack of regard for any civilian life,” Kyle McNally, an MSF project coordinator recently stationed in Sudan's southwestern city of Nyala, told Arab News.

“These are the people they claim to represent and fight for. Instead, this is really a war against the people of Sudan in the way they are carrying out their hostilities. We are seeing very serious violations of civilian protection and attacks on civilians as well as civilian infrastructure.

“Hospitals and healthcare staff have not been spared. We see many attacks on healthcare facilities. The hospital system and healthcare has been completely decimated by the fighting.”

According to the UN, Sudan is facing a deepening food crisis, with around 25 million people – including more than 14 million children, 3 million of whom are under the age of five, suffering from acute malnutrition – in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

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

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

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

The displacement of farmers, in particular, has led to the collapse of Sudan's agricultural sector, exacerbating food insecurity. “Food production has suffered tremendously, and we are witnessing a worsening food crisis,” says Synenko.

“We have hundreds of people calling us, desperate, because they don't know what happened to their loved ones. We have more and more families who are separated and have lost all means of contacting each other.”

In the first half of 2024, the ICRC worked in partnership with the Sudanese Red Crescent to provide emergency aid and essential services. However, its efforts have been frustrated by the security situation, administrative challenges and difficulties in accessing 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 just saw total devastation throughout the city of Nyala, which used to be the second most populated city in Sudan,” said McNally of MSF.

“The entire northern half of the city is almost completely destroyed. You see a total lack of basic services anywhere. There has been virtually no international humanitarian response in this part of the country.

“You really see people struggling. You have the residents who stayed behind, and then you also have IDP camps in the immediate area with hundreds of thousands of people. You see a lot of people who are incredibly desperate and very little help is currently reaching them.”

According to Abubakr, Sudanese civilians are suffering particularly badly in 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 emerging from across the country, but particularly from Darfur.

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

Abubakr recalls feeling haunted by the sight of his neighbors in Khartoum abandoning their homes, leaving behind places and belongings that were integral to their identity, not knowing if they would ever return. He never thought that he would also run away from his hometown.

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

“I see that a person doesn't inhabit the place as much as the place inhabits them,” Abubakr said. “The images and scenes of my home never left my mind. I want to return to it again.”