Over 30 million people in Sudan — 66% of the population — are currently in need of humanitarian assistance. More than 12 million have been forcibly displaced since the Sudanese civil war broke out in April 2023 between the country’s army and a powerful paramilitary group.
Almost 4 million children under the age of 5 face severe and acute malnutrition. Women and girls are particularly exposed to sexual and gender-based violence.
“In my experience, it’s the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” Samy Guessabi, country director in Sudan for the NGO Action Against Hunger, told DW. He was attending the event, “Khartoum Calling,” which was organized by the Human Rights Film Festival to raise awareness about the Sudanese conflict and its humanitarian impacts.
Khartoum-born media executive Niddal Salah-Eldin also emphasized how the future of an entire young generation is being compromised by the war: “More than 15 million children in Sudan are out of school,” she noted at the event, adding for comparison that Germany has 14 million children in total.
A vibrant city disrupted by war
Behind the numbers, there are just as many personal stories. The award-winning documentary “Khartoum” uses a human-first approach, portraying five residents of the country’s capital city: Two young bottle collectors, a tea seller, a civil servant, and a volunteer for the Resistance Committees, the pro-democracy grassroots movement that helped topple former dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.
The film’s production started in 2022. It was initially conceived as a cinematic poem dedicated to Khartoum’s diversity, as captured on the streets by four emerging Sudanese filmmakers: Anas Saeed, Rawia Al Hag, Brahim Snoopy and Timeea M. Ahmed — in collaboration British director Phil Cox.
“But that’s when the war happened,” Brahim Snoopy told DW.
On April 15, 2023, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) bases across Sudan, including in Khartoum and its airport.
“And, you know, the directors, the participants — everyone was scattered around Sudan and Khartoum,” explained the documentary’s co-director.
Sudanese filmmaker Brahim SnoopyImage: Elizabeth Grenier/DW
Snoopy managed to flee to Kenya. Nairobi then became the base from which the five protagonists were reunited to complete the documentary, which now had to chronicle the brutal disruption caused by the conflict.
It was however too dangerous to film the participants’ escape from Sudan. Instead, they were asked to reenact their personal experiences of the war in front of a green screen, to which animations and archival footage were added.
The creative approach allowed the protagonists to go beyond the painful events, and to also reveal their dreams and hopes. Along the way, the film even manages to celebrate Sudan’s vibrant music and culture.
Still from the film ‘Khartoum’Image: Native Voice Films
Pro-democracy groups targeted by both factions
As Sudanese-British journalist Yousra Elbagir pointed out at the screening of the film in Berlin, the conflict in Sudan needs to be understood as a counterrevolutionary war.
Before President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown by the army in April 2019, Sudanese citizens had spent months protesting on the streets, demanding the departure of the ruler who had spent 30 years in power.
In an ensuing power struggle, the two warring factions have been aiming to assert their influence. Now, despite their diverging tactics and motivations, the Sudanese army and RSF both share an interest in suppressing pro-democracy movements that challenge their authority.
“So this is now the conundrum people are in,” said Elbagir. “We’re at such a critical juncture in our history.”
She hopes that those who were killed during the Sudanese revolution while fighting for democracy did not die in vain, and that their aspirations for freedom and majority rule will soon be fulfilled.
In his work for the Resistance Committees, Jawad drove injured protesters to the hospital with his motorcycleImage: Native Voice Films
‘An actively ignored war’
With the wars in Ukraine and Gaza consuming so much global attention, the unprecedented crisis in Sudan has often been described as “the forgotten war.”
For Niddal Salah-Eldin, the Sudan war is not simply forgotten but “actively ignored.”
Meanwhile, Sudan’s large gold reserves and other valuable natural resources indicate that various powers are benefiting from the current instability, noted Salah-Eldin.
The war in Sudan is “a war against Sudanese people,” she added, noting that hunger is being used as a weapon of war.
How gold keeps Sudan at war
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Calling on policy makers to take immediate action
The day after the screening, the event’s Sudanese experts met with German politicians at the Bundestag for a panel discussion exploring concrete courses of action.
In their appeal to the Bundestag, the NGO, Action Against Hunger, called on parliamentarians to provide adequate funds for humanitarian aid, and to directly support local assistance networks.
“More humanitarian diplomacy and political pressure on the conflict parties are needed to open humanitarian corridors, facilitate access to aid, and protect aid deliveries,” said Jan Sebastian Friedrich-Rust, executive director of Action Against Hunger and founder of the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin.
The German government and the EU “must use their foreign policy weight to advocate for safe humanitarian access, a ceasefire, the implementation of international humanitarian law and a peaceful conflict resolution,” Friedrich-Rust added.
Filmmaker Brahim Snoopy says all people can help persuade policy makers to take immediate action in Sudan, whether via social media or discussing the crisis with friends.
“Even just mentioning the word Sudan in your daily conversations is important, because that’s how the whole campaign starts, with small stepping stones.”
Edited by: Stuart Braun
