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For the last six months Aisha*, 59, has been plagued by recurring visions of her murdered son talking to her.
She cannot sleep or think clearly, she says, stumbling to a halt.
uncertain
she → find → halt
“Some days she is entirely mute,” a concerned friend continues, as Aisha stares into space.
asserted
Aisha → continue → space
The grandmother is one of around 100,000 displaced people who have limped into El Obeid in south-central Sudan after long marches along roads lined with corpses.
asserted
who → displace → corpses
She has come here looking for shelter in this frontline town, which has only just survived a siege and is itself under regular drone fire and shelling.
asserted
which → come → fire
El Obeid is the capital of North Kordofan state, which has become the epicentre of one of the deadliest, yet most forgotten, civil wars of the 21st century.
asserted
which → become → century
In the blistering heat of the day, Aisha describes how paramilitaries from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) slaughtered her son and extended family as they tried to flee their village in a tuk-tuk.
asserted
they → describe → tuk
“They dragged them out, lined them up, and shot them.
asserted
They → drag → them
In front of me,” she says blankly.
asserted
she → say → me
Even though some of the wounded were still alive, she was forced to leave them behind, and that still haunts her.
asserted
that → wound → her
She describes watching from afar as the fighters looted the bodies, picking their way through the growing pools of blood.
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fighters → describe → blood
“I grabbed my youngest daughter,” she continues.
asserted
she → grab → daughter
Fighting erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the paramilitary RSF and the Sudanese army, known as the SAF, after years of a bubbling power struggle in the wake of a 2019 uprising which unseated the country’s longtime autocrat, Omar al-Bashir.
asserted
which → erupt → autocrat
Over the last three years, the internecine brutality has left at least 60,000 people dead, but the real figure is likely to be more than double that.
asserted
figure → leave → people
An estimated 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
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people → estimate → homes
It has sparked the worst displacement crisis, and the largest humanitarian and hunger crisis, on the planet right now.
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It → spark → planet
Experts have accused the RSF of committing a likely genocide, the army and affiliates of atrocities, and the UN has declared famine in pockets of the country.
asserted
UN → accuse → country
That will have a devastating impact on generations to come, doctors tell us: in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) shrivelled newborns look otherworldly.
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newborns → have → units
And so the people of Sudan see this less as a civil war than a war on them.
asserted
this → see → them
And, for Aisha, she is tormented by her dead son talking to her.
asserted
she → torment → her
“I am completely shattered, distraught.
asserted
I → shatter → ?
I don’t even know what I am doing.
asserted
I → know → what
It is as if I am in a daze,” she says haltingly.
asserted
she → say → daze
“When I remember him, I cannot hold myself together.
asserted
I → remember → myself
In the middle of the night, I wake up crying.
asserted
I → wake → night
I ask God for forgiveness.
asserted
I → ask → forgiveness
Families are living in mudbrick huts abandoned by residents who fled the area when the fighting came here.
asserted
fighting → live → area
Everyone says they registered with UN agencies and NGOs but have received no support: Sudan remains one of the most underfunded conflict zones right now.
asserted
Sudan → say → zones
The UN has said conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan is unprecedented in terms of the scale, prevalence and brutality of its widespread use as a weapon of war, particularly by the RSF further west in El Fasher, Darfur.
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violence → say → Fasher
There, the UN children’s agency has documented cases of rape of babies as young as one, and Sudanese officials in Khartoum tell The Independent the oldest rape survivor they have documented is 85.
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they → document → Independent
They worry the same will happen to El Obeid, home to half a million people, including tens of thousands of displaced.
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same → worry → displaced
Zaina*, 37, says she only just managed to rescue her daughter from being abducted by the RSF, who were taking women and girls from families who didn’t flee fast enough.
asserted
who → say → families
“I watched them abduct the women, screaming and begging, and take them to a ravine and rape them,” she says with a chilling calmness.
asserted
she → watch → calmness
The problem was, the mother-of-seven continues, there was no one to stop them.
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mother → continue → them
Riham*, a 30-year-old mother-of-eight, says her father and uncle were “shot to pieces” by RSF soldiers when they tried to stop them abducting female relatives.
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them → say → relatives
Blood was splattered everywhere.
asserted
Blood → splatter → ?
Their brains were spilling out.
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brains → spill → ?
Until very recently, El Obeid was almost completely surrounded by RSF fighters, who had to tried to lay siege to and regularly bomb the strategic town, which has become a forward operating post for the Sudanese military and is crawling with soldiers.
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which → surround → soldiers
(The Independent visited SAF-controlled parts of the country and was obliged to conduct some interviews in the presence of a military minder).
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Independent → visit → minder
Just a few hours after we visit the makeshift displacement camp, drone strikes pound the city centre and a neighbouring town, destroying a university and killing over a dozen people.
asserted
strikes → visit → people
And so the families who flee the front line feel like it is chasing them, explains Abida*, who arrived after RSF soldiers shot dead her mother, laid siege to her village, looted everything “and burned the houses to the ground”.
asserted
soldiers → flee → ground
…and 42 more, not listed.
The Aporia
