Sudan conflict: The BBC hears the sounds of fear and hunger in the massacre town of El Jenina

The ghostly suburbs of El Genina are no longer inhabited.

But its empty buildings still stand to tell their shocking stories loud and clear.

Burnt houses and shops have bullet holes. The doors are broken. The metal shutters are broken. Sudanese army tanks are rusting on the roads. You can still smell the fire that burned here last year.

Tom Fletcher, the new UN relief chief, reflected on his visit to West Darfur’s hardest-hit capital: “It was chilling to walk through these smoky ruins and ghost towns. Sudan’s brutal war began 19 months ago. .

“Darfur has seen the worst of the worst,” is how Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, described its devastation.

“It faces a security crisis, including an epidemic of sexual violence as well as a famine scene.”

His brief but important visit was made possible after extensive negotiations with two of Sudan’s main rival forces – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdul Fattah al-Barhan, the UN-recognized government. Heads, and paramilitary forces General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalu’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), known as Hamdati, are now in charge of most of Darfur.

UN officials refer to the RSF as “those in control of the area”.

It was RSF fighters, along with allied Arab militias, who launched a rampage in El Jenina last year, targeting mainly residents of the non-Arab-dominated community, including UN experts on human rights. The groups have called it ethnic cleansing and possible war crimes. Crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch concluded that this constituted possible genocide.

The Sudanese army is also facing severe criticism. Arab civilians have also been reported killed in the unrest, many by shelling from military tanks, or in airstrikes.

Both the RSF and the SAF deny allegations of war crimes and point the finger at their rivals.

Few journalists have been in El Jenina to witness its plight, including the aftermath of two massacres over several months last year, which the United Nations says killed 15,000 people.

The frenzy of violence, rape and looting is considered one of the worst atrocities in Sudan’s brutal conflict, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

We traveled with the UN delegation less than an hour from the Chadian border town of Adre on a dust-covered dirt track that passes through desolate semi-desert plateaus that are half-built or abandoned. It was made of clay. Brick buildings

A small number of hulking lorries loaded with aid from the United Nations’ World Food Program, as well as Sudanese vehicles driven by horses or donkeys, move back and forth across the border marked by a few wooden posts and ropes.

But on the other side of the border, across no man’s land in a dry sloping wadi and along our dark path, armed RSF fighters in camouflage patrol this part of Sudan. Some are just young boys flashing cheeky smiles.

But, before leaving Edre, knowing how difficult it might be to gather evidence inside, we spent time near the border in a sprawling informal camp run by the UN and Chadian authorities. A large crowd, chiefly women of all ages, some carrying children, fills the vast field. This is a temporary settlement of shocking proportions.

The one we spoke with was from El Genina. And they all took their stories with them as they survived the ravages of hunger and the horrors visited upon their homes.

“Our young brothers were killed when we ran away,” piped up a self-confident 14-year-old Sudanese girl in a hot pink headscarf, speaking calmly and quietly of the terrifying time.

“Some of them were still nursing, too young to walk. Our elders who escaped with us were also killed.

I asked her how she managed to survive.

“We had to hide during the day and resume our journey at night. If you move during the day, they will kill you. But moving at night is still so dangerous.

His family eventually made the difficult choice to leave their homeland. Her mother was with her but she did not know where her father was.

“The children were separated from their fathers and husbands,” cried an old woman, her dark eyes blazing with rage.

“They killed everyone indiscriminately – women, boys, children, everyone.”

“We used to get food from our fields,” chimed in another woman as their stories intertwined.

But when the war started, we couldn’t farm and the animals ate our crops, so we had nothing left. “

In El Jenina, our first stop is a modest health center in the al-Riyadh displacement camp, where Sudanese women in brightly colored veils sit on chairs against the wall, or sprawled on bamboo mats on the floor.

An entourage of mainly old men, some with crutches, sit near the front in the shade of the corrugated metal roof and gnarled trees that form an open wall.

It feels like a different El Genina. There is no sight of armed RSF men in the leafy neighborhood lined with shacks. Young boys spin cartwheels, women in head-to-toe veils walk purposefully, and donkey carts carry water drums through the dusty streets.

“We have suffered a lot,” points out a community elder, a white-turbaned teacher who is the first to address the UN team in his signature blue vest. He speaks well and carefully.

“It is true that when the war started, some people supported the SAF, and some supported the RSF. But as displaced people, we are neutral and need all kinds of help.

The camp was first established in 2003, a reminder that Darfur’s suffering began two decades ago when an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed sowed terror in non-Arab communities and carried out numerous He was also charged with war crimes. This gave rise to the RSF.

The teacher listed a catalog of basic needs – from food for malnourished women and children to schools and clean water. He also said that now most of the women are taking responsibility of their family.

Some young women, with only their eyes visible, film the meeting on their phones, perhaps wanting some record of the rare encounter.

Fletcher addressed them directly.

“You must often feel that no one is listening and no one understands what you have endured, more than anyone else in the population, and perhaps more than anyone else in the world.” They respond with loud applause.

The UN’s next stop, behind closed doors, is even clearer as Fletcher and his colleagues sit before a gathering of Sudanese and international NGOs based in Darfur to respond to the massive disaster. are struggling.

Unlike the United Nations, they did not wait for permission from General Burhan’s government to operate here. The approval of UN international staff to reside here was recently revoked.

Twenty NGOs, operating without reliable internet or electricity or even phones, and struggling to get more Sudanese visas for staff, say they reach 99.9% of the population in need. Trying to help. Their message was clear – the UN system was failing them.

“More needs to be done,” Tariq Ribel, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Sudan operations, told us after the meeting. But he says his biggest fear “is that nobody cares, that they’re just focusing on other crises like Ukraine and Gaza.”

“This is one of the worst conflicts we’ve seen in recent memory, in terms of violence committed and people fleeing,” he stresses.

“And there are very few real famines now, but this is one.”

So far, the Global Famine Review Committee (FRC) has identified nearly half a million people in North Darfur as part of the Zamzam IDP camp. More than a dozen other areas are on the brink.

Fletcher insists that “the UN cannot just charge across the border anywhere we want”.

“But this week we have more flights arriving at regional airports, more hubs opening within Sudan, and we’re getting more people on the ground as well.”

During his week-long visit to Sudan and its neighboring countries, he met with representatives of both the SAF and the RSF to push for more access across lines and borders.

He began his new job with a commitment to “eliminate impunity and indifference.”

“It would be premature to say that I alone can end impunity,” he remarks diplomatically about a conflict in which rival regional powers are arming and supporting the warring parties.

The UAE is accused of backing the RSF, and countries including Egypt, Iran and Russia are known to support the SAF. Others are also weighing in, including regional organizations including Saudi Arabia and the Arab Union, all of which say they are working for peace, not war.

When it comes to detachment, many Sudanese and aid workers will be watching closely after Fletcher’s first visit, hoping he can make a difference in the “world’s toughest crisis”.