The fighting came to our doorstep
Asim Elzubair, Plan International Sudan’s Child Protection programme lead based in Kassala State speaks about the impact of the conflict on himself and his wife who was pregnant at the start of the conflict and recounts his work with children who have been psychologically traumatised by the conflict.
In his own words
“My wife and I were living in Khartoum. When the conflict started, we did not think it would be as serious. We heard the shooting but we were not scared, we did not run away, we were doing our normal things. My wife would be in the kitchen cooking and at some point she would say “down”, and we would drop to the ground. Then when it stopped, we continued with the cooking and the cleaning and watching TV.
“For children, coming to terms with the conflict has been hard.”
Asim Elzubair
This is because we have been exposed to conflict for a long time. The shooting is not new, we thought it would be over soon.
At some point, the fighting came to our doorstep – in front of my building. I could see bullet holes. We ran out of water and when I went to the roof to check on the water tower, I saw all the shrapnel from the bombing.
My neighbour had children and as we spoke he mentioned that he would tell the children that the bombs were fireworks but I told him no, to tell them the truth but assure them that they were fine and we were here to protect them and take care of them. We then distracted them with games and drawings.
At some point things got even worse, people started evacuating the area. It became difficult to get food and water and at I couldn’t even go out as there was no fuel. We had to walk a long distance with my pregnant wife and my cousin. I don’t want to tell you how hot Sudan is.
We moved to Madani and here, although we had money, we were unable to find a place to stay – no hotels or guest houses – people were just sleeping on the streets. We went to Al Jazeera, then Kassala, then the port.
I was worried that my wife was approaching 7 months and wouldn’t be able to travel but we made it just in time for her to get on a flight to Egypt. I was, however, denied a visa to Egypt and so asked her to travel to Rwanda instead where we didn’t need a visa, so I could join them there.
We have since had our lovely daughter in Kigali but is that the end of the story? No. As I work here in Sudan, my own daughter is stateless. She has no nationality. She falls within these vulnerable groups. She has no access to services because she has no documents so she can’t even travel anywhere.
I feel lucky, despite everything. We were able to flee the conflict and have the baby safely. There were a lot of people who were shot, having left their homes in search of food and water.
We have all endured massive family separation. I haven’t heard of any family that is complete, all of them in one place. Every one of them is somewhere else.”
“It’s even funny to say host communities, IDPs, refugees. These terminologies are mixed now in Sudan because somebody who is a host today, is an IDP tomorrow.”
Asim Elzubair
The psychological impact on children
Asim speaks about the impact of the conflict on children. “There are many ways to detect how psychologically affected children are. One of the things we do is to give them Lego to form shapes. I notice some of them make trucks, while others form guns. We work with the ones who make the guns.
Even their drawings tell a story, some children paint ordinary things, some paint aircrafts and guns and artillery, those are the ones we work with. After having regular structured activities with a counsellor, you’d be surprised to see how their images change into more colourful trees, rivers, full of life.
We strongly believe when we give children the space to play and engage with other children, they release their stress and their mental state improves. For those who have experienced extreme trauma and need more than instructional activities, we provide them with additional psychosocial sessions and interventions.
For children, coming to terms with the conflict has been hard. That lost look on their faces – that says where are we going?, what is happening? – has been constant.”
“I feel lucky, despite everything. We were able to flee the conflict and have the baby safely. There were a lot of people who were shot, having left their homes in search of food and water.”
Asim Elzubair
The situation in Sudan
Twelve months since conflict erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023, Sudan is facing one of the fastest unfolding crises globally, with unprecedented needs emerging in such a short period. About 25 million people – of whom over 14 million are children – need humanitarian assistance and support, making Sudan the largest child displacement crisis in the world.
Asim explains, “When an emergency takes place, overnight it demolishes most if not all protective measures. The risk factors remain, and eventually multiply, leaving children vulnerable.
Traditional harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, gender-based violence increase during conflict due to the breakdown of support systems. If anything happens, who is going to report? To where? And to whom? And what kind of response will they get?
Many children are now displaced and living in temporary shelters or with host communities where there are many protection risks. The disruption to basic services means that there is nowhere for children and their families to find the support they need and the breakdown of child protection units and the policing structure means there is nowhere to report cases of violence and abuse.
Families who were acting as host communities are now reluctant to host more people because they are struggling with the economic hardships themselves and are unable to feed their own families. There is also the challenge of access to proper sanitation facilities and water.
It’s even funny to say host communities, internally displaced persons (IDP), refugees. These terminologies are mixed now in Sudan because somebody who is a host today, is an IDP tomorrow.”
On our response
Children continue to pay the highest price for a crisis not of their making. Increasingly with their own lives. Plan International is working to deliver life-saving assistance to children, especially girls, whose lives have been devastated by the Sudan crisis. We have a presence in 7 of 8 states in Sudan and our work has continued throughout the conflict.
Plan International is proposing a mobile programming approach – like mobile clinics – to be able to reach and track communities constantly on the move, so we can provide remote response to communities we cannot reach through community based organisations who move with communities fleeing the conflict.
Emergencies, Child protection in emergencies, Migrant and displaced children
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