“We remain because we have nowhere else to go. The recent evacuation order changes nothing”
Violent clashes continued to escalate this week in Bahri, forcing approximately 2,000 people to take refuge in schools and streets in the Al-Samrab neighborhood - facing harsh conditions, without proper shelter, tents, or protection from extreme daytime heat and nighttime cold, according to Bahri Emergency Room.
Initial health assessments also revealed the spread of various conditions including cholera, epilepsy, diabetes, hypertension, eye diseases, and various wounds, with many suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Bahri and East Nile Emergency Rooms have issued a joint appeal, calling on international humanitarian organizations including the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and other humanitarian responders, for urgent intervention to address the crisis.
The escalating clashes followed the announcement, by Bahri Emergency Room on 8 December 2024, that an evacuation order issued by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), demanded residents of Shambat Alhila evacuate within 24 hours. RSF stated the order was issued due to ongoing military operations between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and RSF in the area.
Shambat is a neighborhood in Khartoum Bahri, located on the eastern bank of the Nile River, opposite Omdurman. The area is bordered to the north by Halfaya al-Muluk and to the east by the Wad Dafiya area.
For approximately three weeks, reports have indicated that SAF has been intensifying its operations in Bahri gaining control of large parts of the Al-Samrab area, advancing towards the Kafouri neighborhood, a known RSF stronghold, and aiming to open a route to the Signal Corps command in the southern part of the city.
This is not the first neighborhood evacuation in Bahri. In September 2024, the Services Committee of Bahri announced the evacuation of Al-Mazad South due to deteriorating health and safety conditions.
Interviews available on request
Avaaz is in contact with human rights defenders, civilians, and Emergency Response Room (ERRs) volunteers across Sudan. If you would like to be connected with people on the ground, please reach out to: shayna@avaaz.org or media@avaaz.org
Names have been changed due to safety concerns.
Fatima told Avaaz that “Bahri has been under siege for a while now. We have been trapped in Shambat Al Aradi since the war began, and our situation deteriorates daily. Electricity, once intermittent, has disappeared completely since September. Running water vanished at the war's start, forcing us to rely on a nearby well's contaminated water, and purchase tap water from factory areas.
But since the clashes resumed between RSF and SAF, we can’t even get tap water, we drink from the well, we use strainers and boil the water multiple times, drinking it hot due to our lack of electricity. For food and essentials, young men in our neighborhood travel up to 14.6 km to Haj Yousif just to bring food, facing potential detention, mugging, or beatings at checkpoints.
Without gas, we've reverted to cooking with wood and traditional ovens. It feels like we've been thrown centuries back in time, surviving on minimal resources and constant danger.
Our neighborhood has transformed. Originally home to only locals, it's now filled with displaced people from East Nile, Haj Yousif, and Shambat Alhila. Strangers arrive, finding shelter in empty houses and schools, seeking neighbors' permission to stay. We survive by supporting each other.
Almost two years into this war now, we remain because we have nowhere else to go. The recent evacuation order changes nothing. We've grown accustomed to the constant artillery sounds—drones, shells, and gunfire—a horrific daily soundtrack. Houses around us are shelled, and people are killed while simply searching for food.
This is our reality now, and we continue to live it even as the world forgets about us.”
I'm Shayna Lewis, a Sudan Specialist with Avaaz, reporting this week from New York. This dispatch is the latest in a weekly series designed to support the international media's coverage of the war in Sudan.
The weekly dispatch features the latest developments, first-hand testimony, footage, photos, stats and analysis on Sudan. We can connect you with voices from the ground, experts and survivors of the war. I am available at +44 7935 296 004 / shayna@avaaz.org
To get this briefing in your inbox each week, sign up here.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is building an earthen wall around El Fasher to create a “kill box” and prevent civilians fleeing the besieged city, satellite imagery suggests.
People caught trying to smuggle food into the besieged city of El Fasher are being “executed on sight” by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to one civilian.
Avaaz Foundation
110 Golden Lane | London, England, EC1Y 0TG
1330 6th Avenue, Suite 23A | New York, NY 10019, USA
.svg)
