Sudanese Afflicted by War, Determined to Rise from the Ashes| Sudanow Magazine

Port Sudan (Sudanow) – I was about to leave the cemetery gate when I stumbled on Suad her two daughters, a Sudanese woman in her early fifties, her features reflected sadness and haggard look, as if impacted by the ambiance of this remote cemetery, as its inhabitants have no voice or trace except for those tombstones that bear names and a prayer or a verse written next to it, most of which have been erased by time.

What attracted me to them was that connection that I noticed from afar, as she surrounded them with both hands, they were covered in black, and when I approached them, I felt the depth of that sadness and grief inside them, reflected by their wandering looks as if they were searching for something lost, perhaps they might find it here or there.

As Sudanese meeting in foreign lands we greeted each other and started to get to know each other and chat we asked each other from our regions back in Sudan and our families and then she asked me whose grave I was visiting? I said “my mother”.

It was all surprisingly emotional; the simple word of mother filled her eyes with tears. Then she burst out into sobbing and heartfelt weeping and she started repeating, “If only my mother had a grave so I could visit her. If only she had a grave that I could visit and greet her.”

A moment of simple acquaintance turned into something emotional.
I did not intervene, I left her cry for quite some time, then she calmed, looked away into the horizon, the unknown and started talking as if to herself, relating her story, letting go, as if I was the one who let loose the valve and released a tension that has been building up inside the woman.

“It was the Al-Dagalo militia who stormed our area, in East Khartoum suburb, they took over the whole area, forcefully occupied most of the houses in the neighboring, one after other, and they took over neighborhood after they evicted its residents. They turned the houses into barracks for themselves. They aggressively attacked those who were hesitant to move out and leave or those who refused to leave.” She said.

“It was then that we decided to leave before they reached our area and our house. We agreed with the janitor who was guarding the company building adjacent to our house, relative of his was a member of the militia, to help get us get us out in exchange for a sum of money.”

On that fateful morning, she said, we gathered what we believed our most valuable items for the trip and started carrying them to the pickup truck at the back door of the house, but all of a sudden the sounds of gunfire and bullets increased, then they started storming the houses and forcibly opening the doors firing from their weapons at the door and forced it open, knocked it down.

“We were confused. We did not expect them to reach us that quickly. We started racing to get out. We carried my father, whom I came to visit today
(referring to the grave of her father) to the car with my daughters, Reem and Lina. Then we went back to get my mother out”. She could not continue. The weeping and crying resumed, intensely. I made her, with the help of the two daughter sit down her back against the cemetery fence. After a while, she continued talking.

“When I entered the house, they had already opened the front door with their car and started shooting in the place. A group of them were in my mother’s bedroom. I was in the living room when one of them grabbed my mother and shouted: Where are the keys to the safe (in the room)?’”

He started shaking her violently. She was totally paralyzed. Fear parlayed her totally. She started mumbling now, mumbling words that he did not understand. He kicked her and she was thrown on the floor. He started flipping the mattress over her, searching for the keys.

“At that moment I felt dizzy and saw someone grabbing my eldest daughter, Mai, who was hiding under her grandmother’s bed. He was shouting, ‘I found her. She is mine. She is mine.’ I felt the ground spinning around me. I could not take a step forward. I froze in my place and then fell to the ground.

My brother’s screams and words echoed around him as he resisted tried to stop them to argue with them: ‘Leave her. Let go of her. Leave her.’ Then he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘She is dead. Why did you kill her?’ I felt a hand pulling me. I lost consciousness. I did not wake up until I was in Shendi Hospital in the Nile River.

All this time I was only listening and leaving her, a totally stranger that I stumbled upon, was finding relief in telling me her story. I tried to comfort her, but I couldn't find a phrase or even a word of condolence to comfort her. I tried to summon words, but I couldn't find anything to say. Only my tears were the closest and most honest expression, as the tragedy and the calamity were beyond endurance.

They killed her mother and kidnapped her daughter and her brother. His fate is unknown. No one could approach their neighborhood, even the janitor had to flee the horror with his family to Shendi.

And here she was in Cairo, where she sought refuge, escaping the horrors of war and searching for safety. I don't know how much time passed while we were sitting on the ground, silence enveloped the place. We could only hear groans, but I finally noticed that time had passed and I told them we had to leave the cemetery area as the sun was about to set and we are in foreign land.

We left the cemetery. I didn't feel the noise or the sounds of cars around me. But as we stepped into the crowded streets, I had noticed that she was holding her two daughters and pulling them close to her, as if she was afraid that they would run away from her.

She stopped every now and then, with every few steps, looked right and left, as if she was watching passersby or the street. I tried to bring normality to our conversation, so I asked them directly, in which center will they take the exam?

Suddenly, she scolded me sharply, replying, “They won’t take the exam and they won’t go anywhere without me.” She hugged them even more tightly.

“Am sorry, I do apologize. I thought you said they were in the third year of high school.” She nodded her head in agreement and stopped looked up at me as if to say, “We have to part ways at this point.” I said goodbye to them, my heart aching, and I hurried on. I didn’t look back, fearing that she would turn back, and I entered the first bend in the road.

I started chewing her tale now: Mai was kidnapped and disappeared from their world. Mai was interested in their studies and everything related to academic achievement, from reviewing lessons and others. Mai shouldered this burden, helping her mother so that she could devote herself to caring for their sick grandmother. But Mai has now disappeared, and Reem and Lina remained, paying the price of this absence. Fear has become the only word that colors their lives with its color and taste. It is the war with its hell and bitterness that left wounds that will not heal.

But if the war has caused wounds to the two sisters and deprived Reem and Lina from continuing their studies and assassinated the dream of the future, Muhammad Yasser, on the other side reflected a totally different reaction to the war and to challenging the war and braving the adverse conditions and circumstances.

Yasser was injured by shrapnel, fired by the militia in the Al-Manara neighborhood in Omdurman. He lost two limbs his, let hand and his right leg had to be amputated right away. But he remained symbol of defiance in face of difficulties. He embraced his affliction. This little boy sat down to take the Sudanese Certificate exam for the year 2023. He was studying at Al-Daqir schools. He did not succumb and give in. He took the exams with indomitable strength. It was not just an academic test, but a real battle that he fought as if he was repelling that shell.

He was not alone, though he stood apart as braving his disability brought about by the war. For him and for thousands the Sudan School Certificate was a mark and a turning point for their future, not even shrapnel could deter them from trying.

The Sudanese Certificate exams qualifying for university and higher education institutions have ended after a waiting of about twenty months, following their suspension due to the outbreak of war in April 2023. It was one of the biggest concerns facing Sudanese families.

This year 343,644 students, boys and girls, sat for the exams, that is about 70% of the students registered before the war (570,000), in 2,300 examination centers inside and outside Sudan; 120,724 of them came from active combat areas and state witnessing fighting.

More than 42,000 students sat for the exams in 46 centers in 15 countries, including 28,000 in 25 centers in Egypt, which is the largest number of Sudanese students taking the exams in the countries to which the Sudanese fled to escape the war.
Dr. Ahmed Khalifa Omar, the Federal Minister of Education, described the exams as an epic, saying, "It is an epic of the battle of dignity, written by students and teachers who accomplished this task despite the difficulties they faced."

He argued that the completion of this project under these circumstances demonstrates the will of the Sudanese people and their determination to continue the process of preparing students who constitute the backbone and future of Sudan.

The Minister pointed to the reality of war in the areas witnessing military operations that imposed great challenges on the ministry, students and their families, praising the efforts of the armed forces in securing the centers and providing safe haven for the students and the examiners to overcome this challenge, as the Rapid Support Forces refused to allow conducting the exams in areas under its control the exams.

They even barred students from leaving the areas they controlled areas, especially from Darfur region to safe states. The Minister explained that the Federal Ministry of Education challenged these exceptional circumstances through its technical and administrative apparatus.

He said that the exams for the year 2024 will begin three months from now, March, which provides a good opportunity for students who were unable to take the 2023 exam to sit for the exam with the next batch. He called on students to speed up registration in all liberated places and centers outside Sudan.

It can be said that nothing equals the feeling of accomplishment that comes after passing the Sudan School Certificate Exams. Nobody could serve a better example than the story of the Sudanese female student, Shams Al-Hafiz Abdullah, who traveled from Chad to the River Nile State Sudan, a journey of more than two thousand kilometers across the desert, to sit for the exams.

Chad, in an unbecoming conduct, has refused to allow holding the Sudan School Certificate exams in its soil, where thousands of Sudanese have taken refuge there.

The resolve to attend and take part in the Sudan School Certificate Exams by refugee students, is the best testimony and evidence that the Sudanese people, youth, children and adults are determined to rebuild what the war destroyed, and help those like the lady with her two sisters to return back to their home and rebuild their life a new.one means to do so is through education. This notion was reflected in the ministry’s slogan this year that
"Education does not wait."

And perhaps the victories scored by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in Al-Gezira State and other areas, which brought joy to those bereaved and wounded hearts persons, give hope that the coming days will be brighter and the bitterness and cruelty of current days will be replaced, and perhaps Suad, who has not tasted happiness for a long time, will find comfort in returning home and burying her mother’s remains.

As for Mohammed Yasser, his answer for the fatal bullet of the militia is his belief that “You may have succeeded in destroying buildings and edifices, but it is impossible for you to destroy the will and resolve of the Sudanese people. Through education we will rebuild what the war has destroyed.”
HH/MO

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