Photos show Sudanese refugees who have fled to neighboring Chad in their hundreds of thousands
Nearly a quarter-million refugees have arrived in Adre, a border town in neighboring Chad and the humanitarian front line on the edge of one of the world's most devastating wars is in danger.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
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The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Photos show Sudanese refugees who have fled to neighboring Chad in their hundreds of thousands
Nearly a quarter-million refugees have arrived in Adre, a border town in neighboring Chad and the humanitarian front line on the edge of one of the world's most devastating wars is in danger. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘If things were bad before, they will be worse': can families recover from the stress and strain of war?
When her husband went off to help defend Ukraine against Russia's invasion in 2022, Yulia stayed at home with their toddler. She describes being overcome by a feeling of 'numbness'. 'I'd been left alone with a small child. The worst thing for her was the thought that her father had left her and would never come back. The worst time was when she blocked her father when he tried to call. 'It took several months to get a connection again. I'm glad my husband didn't give up.' Amid a multitude of strains on life in Ukraine after three long years of war, Yulia's family have managed to survive the pressures, helped by a group that offers war-damaged families supportive counselling. Others have not been so lucky. While there are no official figures, anecdotal evidence points to a growing number of relationship stresses and families that have broken up under the pressures of war. From absence when wives and children have fled abroad, to the enforced separation when service at the front means men might only get home for a short period of leave once a year, there are a variety of factors driving relationship stress. Research from other countries, including by King's College London, suggests that in families where one member deploys for 12 months in a three-year period – considerably less than is usual in the Ukrainian military since the Russian invasion – relationship issues are 8% more prevalent than in families where soldiers deploy for shorter periods. How partners adapt and change to new circumstances, whether at home or on the frontline, can also test the closest of bonds. 'It's really a sensitive issue,' says Natalia Umerenkova, a psychologist at Ukraine's Institute of Social and Political Psychology who is involved in running the counselling sessions that Yulia attended. 'One of the main things is fatigue. The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than 10 years, including more than three years of all-out war. 'People are exhausted. We have a hotline for families who have members in the military and we see requests connected to relationships increasing. It's not only wives but also men in the military calling, asking for help because they need help with the feeling that their relationship might be ending,' she says. 'Everything is different in each family. But there are three broad categories. If things were bad before, the war is a catalyst and things will be worse. Then there are the families who were close and know how to deal with the experience, how to communicate and have the same values. 'Between those two are the families where there are differences in outlook, and some trust issues. The war can bring them together or break them up. But there's a feeling that both of them have changed. 'When you don't have enough strength to deal with issues that appear, to talk about them, then it becomes a vicious circle.' For men, the immersion in a military culture can create emotional separation from home. 'It's like a closed male club, where certain initiations take place,' says one woman who recently separated from her partner. 'They are surviving dangerous tasks. The men are physically together most of the time. They become emotionally closer to them than their partner because of the different shared experiences. 'And it takes a lot of empathy from the soldier who's dealing with life and death issues to empathise with the issues his partner is dealing with in civilian life.' The war, she says, has tilted the balance in Ukraine society's gender politics. 'There is more of a tendency to excuse men's behaviour. It's considered bad if people feel you are talking shit about your partner.' The issue of trust can be one of uncertainty, and difficulty in communication, corroded by uncomfortable truths: including the awareness that some soldiers visit sex workers, a reality much in evidence in areas adjoining the immediate frontline. 'It's normal when in combat conditions,' says Umerenkova. 'Your brain switches to survival mode to try to cut off emotions not connected to war. 'You put all emotions into your survival and the survival of the group. Lots of wives say that communication with their husband changes because they are communicating the same way as in their military group. Short unemotional communications. And the wives are asking: 'Are we OK?' They see it as rejection.' Mutual misunderstanding compounding a sense of doubt is a common theme. 'I came to this group,' says Yulia, 'because I felt I had no choice. I could go crazy or learn to find help from other people. I was worried something was wrong with me.' For Marina, 41, the stress responses became physical over the separation from her husband of 22 years, a combat medic who was injured during the conflict. 'We have never been apart for more than a month. We worked to find ways to communicate but it was really hard for me to understand why he wasn't here. It was like losing a limb and I had a physical reaction – rashes – when he left. 'I couldn't understand if my emotional reactions were correct. In the beginning I thought the war would last one year at most. Then life will be the same but it's not. '2022 was a bad year for me,' she adds. 'I started therapy and then I heard about the support group. I found it hard to stay in touch with people whose life didn't change as much and didn't have the huge stress of a husband in the military. 'One of the things I understand now is the right time to talk about certain things. Because my husband is a medic it's sometimes hard for him to talk about a lot of things, including the loss of colleagues. Now we have special words when he doesn't want to say something. Now I understand.' Umerenkova says the necessary level of social support is lacking in Ukraine. 'Everyone needs some support but its not easy to get with so many people in the army. As a society we need it, and it's important to start to talk about this now while the men are still in the army – because after the war, our veterans will need to deal with it.'
The Independent
10 hours ago
- The Independent
Starving Sudanese people eating weeds to survive amid brutal war
People in Sudan are resorting to boiling wild plants and weeds with salt to survive, as the country grapples with a devastating war and widespread hunger. For many, these desperate measures are the only means to quiet the pangs of starvation. Among those struggling is A.H., a 60-year-old retired school teacher, who penned a love poem to a plant known as Khadija Koro, grateful for the lifeline it offered. He wrote that it was "a balm for us that spread through the spaces of fear", and kept him and many others from starving. A.H., who requested anonymity due to fears of retribution from the warring factions for speaking to the press, is one of 24.6 million people in Sudan facing acute food insecurity – nearly half the nation's population, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalated into full-scale fighting, initially in the capital Khartoum and then spreading across the country. The war has claimed over 20,000 lives, displaced nearly 13 million people, and pushed vast swathes of the population to the brink of famine in what aid workers have described as the world's largest hunger crisis. Aid organisations report that the conflict has caused market prices to skyrocket, severely hampered aid delivery, and drastically shrunk agricultural lands in a country once considered a global breadbasket. The situation is particularly dire in regions such as Kordofan, the Nuba Mountains, and Darfur, where areas like El Fasher and the Zamzam camp remain inaccessible to groups like the Norwegian Refugee Council, as confirmed by aid worker Mathilde Vu, who is based in Port Sudan. Some individuals are surviving on just one meal a day, often a simple millet porridge, while in North Darfur, some have even resorted to sucking on coal in a desperate attempt to ease their hunger. On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and asked him for a week-long ceasefire in El Fasher to allow aid delivery. Burhan agreed to that request, according to an army statement, but it's unknown whether the RSF would agree to that truce. A.H. said aid distribution often provided slight relief. His wife in children live in Obeid and also struggle to secure enough food due to high prices in the market. His poem continued: 'You were a world that sends love into the barren time. You were a woman woven from threads of the sun. You were the sandalwood and the jasmine and a revelation of green, glowing and longing." Fighting restricted travel, worsening food insecurity Sudanese agricultural minister Abu Bakr al-Bashari told Al-Hadath news channel in April that there are no indicators of famine in the country, but there is shortage of food supplies in areas controlled by the paramilitary forces, known as RSF. However, Leni Kinzli, World Food Programme Sudan spokesperson, said 17 areas in Gezeira, most of the Darfur region, and Khartoum, including Jebel Aulia are at risk of famine. Each month, over 4 million people receive assistance from the group, including 1.7 million in areas facing famine or at risk, Kinzli said. The state is suffering from two conflicts: one between the Rapid Support Forces and the army, and another with the People's Liberation Movement-North, who are fighting against the army and have ties with the RSF, making it nearly impossible to access food, clean water, or medicine. He can't travel to Obeid in North Kordofan to be with his family, as the Rapid Support Forces blocked roads. Violence and looting have made travel unsafe, forcing residents to stay in their neighborhoods, limiting their access to food, aid workers said. A.H. is supposed to get a retirement pension from the government, but the process is slow, so he doesn't have a steady income. He can only transfer around $35 weekly to his family out of temporary training jobs, which he says is not enough. Hassan, another South Kordofan resident in Kadugli said that the state has turned into a 'large prison for innocent citizens' due to the lack of food, water, shelter, income, and primary health services caused by the RSF siege. International and grassroots organizations in the area where he lives were banned by the local government, according to Hassan, who asked to be identified only by his first name in fear of retribution for speaking publicly while being based in an area often engulfed with fighting. So residents ate the plants out of desperation. 'You would groan to give life an antidote when darkness appeared to us through the window of fear.,' A.H. wrote in his poem. "You were the light, and when our tears filled up our in the eyes, you were the nectar.' Food affordability Ms Vu warned that food affordability is another ongoing challenge as prices rise in the markets. A physical cash shortage prompted the Norwegian Refugee Council to replace cash assistance with vouchers. Meanwhile, authorities monopolize some markets and essential foods such as corn, wheat flour, sugar and salt are only sold through security approvals, according to Hassan. Meanwhile, in southwest Sudan, residents of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, rely on growing crops, but agricultural lands are shrinking due to fighting and lack of farming resources. Hawaa Hussein, a woman who has been displaced in El Serif camp since 2004, told the AP that they benefit from the rainy season but they're lacking essential farming resources such as seeds and tractors to grow beans, peanuts, sesame, wheat, and weika — dried powdered okra. Ms Hussein, a grandmother living with eight family members, said her family receives a food parcel every two months, containing lentils, salt, oil, and biscuits. Sometimes she buys items from the market with the help of community leaders. 'There are many families in the camp, mine alone has five children, and so aid is not enough for everyone … you also can't eat while your neighbor is hungry and in need,' she said. El Serif camp is sheltering nearly 49,000 displaced people, the camp's civic leader Abdalrahman Idris told the AP. Since the war began in 2023, the camp has taken in over 5,000 new arrivals, with a recent surge coming from the greater Khartoum region, which is the Sudanese military said it took full control of in May. 'The food that reaches the camp makes up only 5 per cent of the total need. Some people need jobs and income. People now only eat two meals, and some people can't feed their children,' he said. In North Darfur, south of El Fasher, lies ZamZam camp, one of the worst areas struck by famine and recent escalating violence. An aid worker with the Emergency Response Rooms previously based in the camp who asked not to be identified in fear of retribution for speaking with the press, told the AP that the recent wave of violence killed some and left others homeless. Barely anyone was able to afford food from the market as a pound of sugar costs 20,000 Sudanese pounds ($33) and a soap bar 10,000 Sudanese pounds ($17). The recent attacks in ZamZam worsened the humanitarian situation and he had to flee to a safer area. Some elderly men, pregnant women, and children have died of starvation and the lack of medical treatment, according to an aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's fearful of retribution for speaking publicly while living in an area controlled by one of the warring parties. He didn't provide the exact number of those deaths. He said the situation in Zamzam camp is dire—'as if people were on death row.' Yet A.H. finished his poem with hope: 'When people clashed and death filled the city squares,' A.H. wrote, 'you, Koro, were a symbol of life and a title of loyalty.'
