Sudanese flee conflict to rebel-controlled Nuba mountains

DW (English)

Thousands of people are fleeing Sudan's war and seeking safely in the country's remote Nuba mountains. DW gained rare access to hear their stories.

Transcript

00:00 These remote parts of Sudan have become a place of refuge for people fleeing the war.

00:07 And some of them can now tell their stories.

00:12 My name is Hana Hamoda.

00:13 I fled from war in Khartoum after I lost my two children and one of my legs.

00:20 To tell their stories, we had to enter Sudan illegally via South Sudan to reach the remote

00:26 Nuba Mountains region.

00:29 Checkpoints are guarded by the SPLMN rebel group.

00:32 They have been fighting the Sudanese government for almost 40 years, demanding self-determination

00:38 and secularism.

00:41 Now the war has reignited this old conflict.

00:46 As we're travelling with German NGO Kapan Amur, we are allowed to pass.

00:52 After an eight-hour drive, we reach Agiri camp.

00:55 Thousands of internally displaced people have sought refuge here, including Hana Hamoda.

01:04 When the bomb hit our house, I didn't lose my leg straight away, and I didn't immediately

01:08 sense that it was severed.

01:11 My body just felt numb.

01:15 She was taken to hospital.

01:17 When she woke up from surgery to amputate her leg, the doctors told her that she had

01:22 also lost her two sons, Awatif and Abrar, who were only two and four years old.

01:31 My children were adorable.

01:32 We played a lot together, but God has taken them away from me.

01:35 I will leave it to God to judge the government.

01:37 I don't blame God for it.

01:46 Roughly a quarter of a million people reach the remote Nuba Mountains region.

01:51 This local church played a crucial role in providing sanctuary.

01:56 Many people in the congregation here today say they have this man to thank for their

02:01 lives - Pastor Mosa Kodi.

02:05 A few weeks after the fighting broke out, he organised 23 buses which transported 1,500

02:11 residents of Khartoum to safety in the Nuba Mountains.

02:16 Our people scattered.

02:17 Our people died.

02:19 Our people were not having food.

02:22 The bus carried more than the number that it was supposed to carry because people were

02:27 running from there and they were not able to stay there.

02:29 So we just filled the bus and they faced a lot of hunger on the way.

02:35 People in this region have to get by without help.

02:38 Aid organisations can't access it because of the fighting.

02:42 Almost 10,000 people have found refuge in this camp.

02:46 Now at least they have a sense of safety but not much else.

02:50 They lack clean water, proper food and shelter.

02:53 And the only medical facility has not enough medicine.

02:58 Despite what she's gone through, Hane Hamoda says she won't give up.

03:03 She has two other children to take care of.

03:06 I do now struggle so that I may make them educated, so that I may make them be happy.

03:13 They should not feel that we don't have a complete mother.

03:16 That is why I am practising to do every activity around the world so that I may not let them

03:23 say that we lost our mum.

03:26 With the war still ongoing, many of the stories of those who have been affected are only starting

03:32 to trickle out.

03:33 What's clear is that the effects will last well into the next generation.

03:37 (baby cooing)

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