“Because what survivor hasn’t had her struggle made spectacle?
Don’t talk about the motherland unless you know that being from Africa
means waking up an afterthought in this country.
Don’t talk about my flavor unless you know that
My flavor is insurrection, it is rebellion, resistance
My flavor is mutiny
It is burden, it is grit and it is compromise
And you don’t know compromise until you’ve rebuilt your home for the third time
Without bricks, without mortar, without any other option.”
—from ‘Mama’ by Emi Mahmoud, Sudanese poet
Sudanese journalist-turned-entrepreneur Dallia M. Abdel Moniem hurriedly left her country in April 2023. As of December 2024, she is yet to begin to process the fact that she has become a refugee, as, in her words, it was unimaginable. “The Sudanese who managed to find safety elsewhere are all on autopilot. We’re all somehow functioning,” she says.
Though Sudan has lived from one conflict to another for decades, the national capital, Khartoum, her hometown, remained safe. It was where people gathered—from those with aspirations to those forcibly displaced from conflict-torn regions of the country. But no more. In the latest episode of the Sudanese civil war, Khartoum emerged as the epicentre.
Abdel Moniem worked as a freelance journalist in Egypt for several years before returning to Khartoum in 2013. She took a break from journalism and set up a bakery to pursue her passion for baking and business. However, as anti-government protests broke out in 2019 against President Omar al-Bashir, she joined the agitations and returned to journalism.
In April 2023, after clashes broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF), she had to leave again. This time she ended up in the United Kingdom, where she has been since then, with other members of her family scattered in different countries. Activism gives her the purpose to go on—activism for those who are trapped in Sudan’s ever-deteriorating living conditions triggered by a brutal turf war, those abroad, and those who are trying to cross borders.
“We (Sudanese) need to keep advocating their cause, calling for attention and talking about Sudan because no one else will,” she tells Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, speaking about the humanitarian calamity unfolding in Sudan, which has triggered the worst refugee crisis of recent times.
ꦯHow did you, your family and friends suffer from the civil war?
♛For the majority of my friends, family and myself, we lost our home, we lost the place we all grew up in, which gave us the sense of belonging and sanctuary one can never find anywhere else. It was also where we had established businesses and worked. My family has always been in the agriculture, export and import sectors businesses and was socially and entrepreneurially a stalwart in Sudan, especially in Khartoum, the capital.
ꦏThe war forced five generations of my family to flee the place we called home. We are all scattered in various corners of the world, some in West Asia, some in Europe, some in the US, and some in Central and Eastern Africa. None of us know when we will be able to return. And that is the biggest issue—will we ever be able to return home?
When did you leave Sudan and how?
✱I left Sudan two weeks after war broke out (in April 2023). Our house is located at what was the heart of the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Force (RSF). It wasn’t safe for us to stay. It took us a week to leave our house and another week to leave Sudan. Some family members are still in Sudan but not in Khartoum. Most have relocated to the eastern region, which is relatively safer than other areas.
Which countries are people fleeing to? How are the refugees being treated?
💫Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and to a certain extent Ethiopia, are the countries people initially escaped to. Some have moved to other countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kenya, Uganda, Oman and Saudi Arabia. However, the majority of displaced people are on the Chadian border with Sudan, and in Egypt.
♛It hasn’t been easy for those seeking safety and refuge. It’s been a horror show. The countries that share a border with Sudan also suffer from their own problems, be it economic crisis or political unrest, etc. At the same time, international aid agencies have been crippled by a lack of funding and political will as well as bureaucratic red tape that limits their capacity, and capability to work. All this ultimately affects those displaced internally and those who manage to cross borders.
🌄Add to it the illegal crossing of the borders. Civilians who are seeking to escape the war but cannot do so legally become so desperate to reach safely that they pay the agents exorbitant prices to cross the borders, sometimes only to face deportation for want of legal documents. Once in the country, it’s up to the illegal migrants to manage themselves.
🔯Meanwhile, those internally displaced in Sudan have faced violence on multiple levels due to the expansion of the war front to various regions and states. Areas that were originally considered safe fell under the control of the RSF, such as El Gezira (also spelt al-Jazirah) state. We still do not know the full extent of the violations and massacres meted out by the militia, but the reports and testimonies we are receiving are beyond horrific. And El Gezira is just one area, Darfur is another, as is Khartoum, Kordofan, and so on.
ওThe violations committed by the RSF are war crimes and some have been ethnically targeted. They have massacred scores of villages, committed heinous crimes and mass graves have been discovered. Testimonies from survivours add further evidence to the crimes being committed by the militia.
“Civilians who seek to escape the war but cannot do so legally become so desperate that they pay agents exorbitant prices to cross the borders.”
There are a lot of concerns about rampant sexual violence. Can you tell us about the situation?
༒The RSF militia is waging a full-on sexual violations war on the women and girls of Sudan and using rape as one of their weapons of choice. The information that we now possess, according to many experts in the field and rights organisations, is just the tip of the iceberg. There were reports of females opting to take their own lives instead of facing being gang-raped by the militia soldiers. Sexual slavery, enforced marriage and servitude, as well as gang rape, are just some of the violations the RSF has committed and have been documented.
🧔What is worse is that there exists no aftercare protocol that victims of sexual violations require. The ‘rape kit’ for collecting forensic evidence, the psychological and therapeutic help, and access to health facilities and procedural and operational medical care are either unavailable or inaccessible. Factor in the social stigma and you have such a complex, messed-up matter. The generational fallout from this is, and will be, enormous.
What do you think is at the core of the crisis in Sudan?
꧟It’s two-fold. The first is the political power struggle between two power-hungry generals who opted to instigate a coup rather than allow a civilian transitional government to rule. Then there is the role of outside actors who are prolonging this war to gain access to resources. Sudan is rich in gold, minerals, agricultural lands, water and land. It’s also one of the gateways to inland Africa and in today’s scramble for resources Sudan is perfect for states looking to procure these resources for themselves.
What role are the foreign actors playing?
✤A huge role. And one that very few in the international community are willing to call out, sanction, or penalise, owing to various reasons, including bilateral economic and political interests.
෴That the UAE is supporting and supplying the RSF with arms and other technical support has been well documented by several media outlets, the UN, and other research entities. They are doing so while they formally recognise the SAF as the state armed forces, not the RSF militia. The UAE’s role and interest are multifaceted—access to natural resources and geo-political maneuvering are major incentives for the Gulf state. Their outreach can be seen in several African countries. Regarding Egypt, for example, they don’t want another Libya-like chaotic scenario on their borders.
🧜The Wagner group (a Russian, State-funded private militia) is also allegedly playing a role in the smuggling of gold and supply of arms to the RSF. On the other hand, Egypt, Turkey and Iran have been documented as supplying weapons to the SAF.
What solution do you see?
♐Right now, I don’t see any way out, but I live in hope. Many actors—domestic, regional and global—are involved and none have the best interests of Sudan in mind. Attempts to find or to push for an end to this war have been half-hearted at best. Unless there is an outright victory for either the SAF or the RSF, this war can drag on for years. There needs to be a concerted push for this war to end. But who will do that?
(This appeared in the print as 'A Land Of Permanent Goodbyes')
