AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
We begin this hour of the program with a place we hear about but rarely from. Almost 18 months ago, a war led by two rival generals erupted in the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, and the city of Omdurman just across the Nile. The fighting brought one of Africa's largest countries to a standstill. Now the battle between the Sudanese Army and the powerful paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has caused the world's largest displacement and humanitarian crisis and led the country to the brink of full-scale famine. Access to Sudan as a whole is tough, much less to those twin cities. But NPR correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu is in Omdurman now, and he joins us. Hi, Emmanuel.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Hi, Ayesha.
RASCOE: You've been in the country for a week and, in the past few days, in and around the capital region. What are you seeing?
AKINWOTU: It's hard to just put into words how devastating this war has been here. You know, large parts of the city feels basically apocalyptic, just hollowed out by the fighting, you know, torched or bombed or covered in bullets. Most of Omdurman was occupied by the Rapid Support Forces or RSF for several months, you know, with fighters embedded in homes, businesses, hospitals. And then in May, the army fought the group back out of most of the city, bar a few rogue fighters in small pockets of it.
But the occupation was just one layer of the war here. They also looted everything, and it feels like a ghost town obliterated by the fighting. People's walls blown right open - you can see their belongings in their homes or just littered out onto the streets. Food and rent prices are sky-high. People are starving or sick or struggling to get basic help.
And then there's the constant shellings. Each morning, just outside our apartment, you can hear the birds singing.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS SINGING)
AKINWOTU: But from around 7 in the morning, the shelling starts.
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
AKINWOTU: The RSF are just across the Nile in Khartoum, and they're shelling Omdurman constantly. The attacks are killing people every day.
RASCOE: That's really horrific. What kind of toll is this having on people and on hospitals?
AKINWOTU: Well, the few hospitals that are functioning are overwhelmed, and the vast majority have shut down, hit by shellings, although recently, a few have started to reopen. We've been to three hospitals over the last few days, and victims were pouring in even while we were there. People were dying right before our eyes, and so the situation is just grim. People are still leaving Omdurman every day, fleeing to other parts of Sudan or even to other countries. But it's really sad because something that you often hear is just how hard it is for people who fled to countries like Egypt, South Sudan, Uganda, to kind of rebuild their lives, especially if you don't have means.
RASCOE: I mean, it all just sounds so overwhelming and just, like, hard to fathom. What has really stuck out to you so far?
AKINWOTU: There have been several things really, but one of the things that has been really hard to see is the toll on medical staff. I spoke to the lead doctor at one hospital called Al Nao Hospital. The doctor is Dr. Jamal Mohamed, and his hospital has become one of the main, if not the main hospital in Omdurman. And he told me that they've been shelled over and over again and that medical staff have actually even been killed while operating or treating patients. While we were there, there had been shellings for hours, and several victims were rushed into the hospital. He also told me that he evacuated his children and members of his family to Cairo, where they now live. But he and his wife - they decided to stay. And I asked him why he and so many other doctors have risked their lives to remain behind.
JAMAL MOHAMED: It's my duty. It's my work. It is my country. I can't leave. I cannot imagine another life away from my home, and I don't want it. I don't want a life in a safe or good place without being attached to some - to your roots, to your country, to your home.
AKINWOTU: And there are so many other people like him risking their lives to help other people. We've seen so many community kitchens, these local initiatives where people are essentially feeding hundreds if not thousands of people. Even while we've seen so much despair, we've also just seen the incredible resilience and bravery of so many individual people that are making Omdurman, at least, to some extent, livable or survivable for some people.
Actually, another thing that has stuck with me is just the incredible hospitality. It's hard to see anyone without them more or less forcing you to stay and have food or drink. And it's just incredibly moving because many people don't have very much, but even out of the little they have, that famous kind of Sudanese hospitality just comes through all the time.
RASCOE: Wow. That's incredible. Many in the international community have called this the forgotten war. There's a struggle for U.N. funds to relieve the humanitarian crisis, and there's also struggling for the sense of just diplomatic urgency that we've seen with the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Is that a feeling shared on the ground there?
AKINWOTU: Absolutely. You know, something that you hear constantly here is the world has forgotten or doesn't care about what's happening in Sudan. And people are also resentful. Yesterday, I spoke to a couple who started a community feeding kitchen called Friday Meals. They feed about 10,000 people every Friday. And when I asked them about why they did this, they said, no one from the outside world is going to help us. We have to help ourselves. And that's such a common thing that you hear here, and it's one of the things that drives people even more to have solidarity and to look out for each other.
RASCOE: That's NPR correspondent, Emmanuel Akinwotu in Omdurman, Sudan. Emmanuel, thank you so much, and please stay safe.
AKINWOTU: Thanks, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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