How grassroots activists are stepping in to care for Sudan’s war-scarred communities

Sudan’s conflict has left millions without access to basic services forcing volunteers to offer assistance through so- called emergency response rooms. (AFP)
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Updated 02 April 2025
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How grassroots activists are stepping in to care for Sudan’s war-scarred communities

  • Sudan’s conflict has left millions without access to basic services, forcing civilians to become self reliant
  • Volunteer networks have become essential, filling gaps left by humanitarian aid shortages and failing state institutions

LONDON: Abandoned by the rest of the world and condemned to endure a crisis with no apparent end in sight, communities in war-torn Sudan are taking matters into their own hands, providing public services in place of state institutions that have long since collapsed.

Grassroots efforts are being made to help families who have chosen to remain in Sudan to cope with the trauma of war, from mental health support in emergency response rooms, known as ERRs, to volunteer networks reuniting displaced loved ones.

Two years into the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, aid delivery remains sporadic, internet access unreliable, and violence a persistent threat to civilian lives and infrastructure.

Despite this, networks of volunteers, many of them war survivors themselves, have stepped into the vacuum to assist others — offering a quiet form of resilience in the face of events beyond their control.




Despite the resilience of these community-level initiatives, grassroots leaders say they cannot do it alone. (AFP)

“We provide free mental health services to individuals and groups who are victims of war,” Maab Labib, a mental health professional and coordinator of the psychosocial support team at the Bahri Emergency Room, one of the most active ERRs in the capital, told Arab News.

“We currently have 25 therapists and psychologists. So far, we’ve provided individual psychological support to over 1,500 people.”

Founded in the first week of the war, the team’s reach now extends well beyond Bahri to other parts of Khartoum and multiple states across Sudan. The initiative combines online consultations with in-person group sessions held in safe areas.

“Our services are not limited by age, gender or nationality,” said Labib. “We have supported Sudanese and non-Sudanese, survivors of gender-based violence, and even soldiers.”

However, the weight of the war has not spared the caregivers. “The service providers themselves are displaced and traumatized. We offer peer-to-peer emotional support, but the lack of resources and the constant threat of violence make it very hard to continue.”

In the absence of functioning public institutions, the Bahri Emergency Room team is part of a wider constellation of mutual aid structures that emerged from Sudan’s revolutionary fabric.




Two years into the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, aid delivery remains sporadic. (AFP)

These include communal kitchens, neighborhood support groups, and psychological first aid training programs — many of which trace their origins to the 2018-19 uprising against long-time ruler Omar Bashir.

According to Guido Lanfranchi, a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank, these local support networks reflect a deeper political dimension.

“They are a beacon of hope, showing that people can come together to support each other even as the state collapses and militarization deepens,” he told Arab News. “They don’t have power to influence military dynamics, but they keep alive the spirit of the revolution.”

Yet that very symbolism has made them targets. “Mutual aid groups are being attacked by both sides,” Anette Hoffmann, also of the Clingendael Institute, told Arab News.

“Early in the war, the SAF issued a law banning service committees. In RSF-controlled areas, groups have been accused of collaborating with the enemy. And some volunteers have even been asked by the RSF to work with them in exchange for money.”

She added: “Romanticizing their efforts is dangerous. They are desperate for support and very capable of managing large-scale funding — yet the international community has largely turned away.”

According to the UN, almost 25 million people — more than half of Sudan’s population — are now in need of humanitarian assistance, making it one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing crises.

The recent suspension of USAID-funded programs has worsened the situation dramatically, especially in regions where US-backed partners were among the few delivering food, medical supplies, and protection services.




Networks of volunteers, many of them war survivors themselves, have stepped into the vacuum to assist others. (AFP)

The shutdown has forced numerous nongovernmental organizations to scale back or cease operations altogether, increasing the burden on under-resourced local initiatives.

For many communities, the loss of these lifelines has meant the difference between a meal and an empty stomach, between trauma support and suffering in silence.

That vacuum is deeply felt by grassroots groups trying to maintain food programs and trauma support across multiple regions.

The Safe Haven Organization, formerly known as the Save Geneina Initiative, is one such group. It operates across both Sudan and Chad, managing kitchens and child-friendly spaces in displacement centers.

“In Sudan, we supported 4,500 families a day through our kitchens,” Mozamul Mohammed Ali, himself a refugee and now project manager in Adre, eastern Chad, told Arab News.

“But some kitchens had to stop due to lack of funds. In places like Algazira and Sennar, we simply could not continue.”




Grassroots efforts are being made to help families who have chosen to remain in Sudan to cope with the trauma of war. (AFP)

Ali, who lives in a refugee camp, described the pressures local initiatives now face.

“When other NGOs — especially those backed by USAID — pulled out, it fell to us to cover more and more people,” he said. “We depend on crowdfunding, and we keep going because we’re part of the same community.”

As a result, they have had to adapt over time. “At first it was just food, then healthcare, then mental health. Now we’re doing reunifications,” he said.

“We found a 9-year-old boy who was separated from his family for nearly a year while crossing into Chad. Our volunteers located him in Abeche, and after receiving psychological support, he was reunited with his parents.”

Inside Sudan, the organization’s reach continues despite the chaos. “We work in army-held areas, using volunteers from within each community,” said Ali.

“But there are more displaced people now. More trauma. Inflation is up. Fuel is scarce. Even communication is hard — blackouts and bad networks slow everything down.”

Mental health problems, in particular, are a growing concern. “There’s a significant rise in trauma-related disorders, especially among women and children,” Mohammed Abkar Goma, a trauma center manager for Safe Haven, told Arab News.




According to Guido Lanfranchi, a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank, these local support networks reflect a deeper political dimension. (AFP)

“But stigma remains high. People are afraid to seek help.”

To bridge this gap, the group also trains non-specialists in psychological first aid. “We focus on breathing, grounding, listening,” said Goma. “Our goal is to help people hold each other through trauma — especially in camps and shelters where professional services are not available.”

Despite the resilience of these community-level initiatives, grassroots leaders say they cannot do it alone. “The needs have become more complex,” said Ali.

“We started with just food and shelter. Now, we need sustained health services, education, and trauma care. And we need the international community to recognize that we can manage these programs only if we get the support.”




According to the UN, almost 25 million people — more than half of Sudan’s population — are now in need of humanitarian assistance. (AFP)

Lanfranchi of the Clingendael Institute believes Sudan’s grassroots activists — the remnants of a once flourishing civil society — need all the help they can get.

“It’s a form of quiet political defiance,” he said. “The state is collapsing. International actors are absent. And yet, these community groups are stepping in — not just to survive, but to resist fragmentation.”

And despite the risks posed by Sudan’s armed actors, the volunteers say they have no choice but to continue. “We are not heroes,” said Ali. “We just couldn’t watch our people suffer without doing something.”

 


Guardian Council in Iran approves law to end cooperation with nuclear watchdog

Updated 10 sec ago
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Guardian Council in Iran approves law to end cooperation with nuclear watchdog

  • Mystery surrounds whereabouts of Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium

TEHRAN: Iran’s powerful Guardian Council on Thursday approved legislation that would suspend Tehran’s cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The proposed suspension, which will now be submitted to President Masoud Pezeshkian for final ratification, would “ensure full respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran ... especially with regard to uranium enrichment,” spokesman Hadi Tahan Nazif said.

The watchdog passed a resolution two weeks ago accusing Iran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations. A suspension of cooperation with the agency would deny UN inspectors access to Iran’s uranium enrichment operations at Fordow, Isfan and Natanz, which were attacked in US bombing raids last Sunday.

Meanwhile confusion continued to surround the location of Iran’s stockpile of about 400 kg of highy enriched uranium. Satellite images from before Sunday’s attacks showed a long line of vehicles outside the Fordow plant. Some experts believe Iran used the convoy to move the uranium and other nuclear components, and is hiding them elsewhere.

However, US President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth both insisted on Thursday that the stockpile at Fordow had been destroyed. “The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out,” Trump said. Hegseth said: “I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be.”


Syrian architect uses drone footage to help rebuild hometown

Updated 26 June 2025
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Syrian architect uses drone footage to help rebuild hometown

TAL MARDIKH, Syria: Syrian architect Abdel Aziz Al-Mohammed could barely recognize his war-ravaged village when he returned after years away. Now, his meticulous documentation of the damage, taken using a drone, helps to facilitate its rebuilding.

“When I first came back, I was shocked by the extent of the destruction,” said Mohammed, 34.

Walking through his devastated village of Tal Mardikh, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, he said he could not recognize “anything, I couldn’t even find my parents’ home.”

Nearly half of Tal Mardikh’s 1,500 homes have been destroyed and the rest damaged, mainly due to bombardment by the former Syrian army.

Mohammed, who in 2019 fled the bombardment to near the Turkish border, first returned days after a militant offensive toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December.

The architect, now based in Idlib city, had documented the details of Tal Mardikh’s houses and streets before fleeing and later used his drone to document the destruction.

When he returned, he spent two weeks surveying the area, visiting homes, and creating an interactive map that detailed the conditions of each house. “We entered homes in fear, not knowing what was inside, as the regime controlled the area for five years,” he said.

Under the blazing sun, Mohammed watched as workers restored a house in Tal Mardikh, which adjoins the archeological site of Ebla, the seat of one of the Syrian Arab Republic’s earliest kingdoms.

His documentation of the village helped gain support from Shafak, a nongovernmental organization which agreed to fund the reconstruction and rehabilitation of 434 out of 800 damaged homes in Tal Mardikh.

The work is expected to be completed in August and includes the restoration of two wells and sanitation networks, at a cost exceeding $1 million.


Instagram influencer Motaz Azaiza brings the Gaza story to US

Updated 26 June 2025
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Instagram influencer Motaz Azaiza brings the Gaza story to US

PHILADELPHIA: At a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hundreds of people gathered recently for a weeknight charity fundraiser hosted by a celebrity guest.

The venue was not announced in advance due to security concerns, and attendance cost at least $60 a pop — with some spending $1,000 to get a photo with the host.

Yet, the event was not a gala hosted by a movie star or famed politician, but by a photojournalist: Gaza native Motaz Azaiza, whose images of the Israeli assault following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack launched him to international recognition.

Wearing a black T-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and gold-framed glasses, the 26-year-old boasts nearly 17 million followers on Instagram for his images from the war in Gaza.

“I wish you had known me without the genocide,” Azaiza told the crowd, his voice faltering.

Before the war, Azaiza was a relatively unknown figure, posting photos from his daily life in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, to his roughly 25,000 Instagram followers at the time.

But as soon as the first strikes from Israel hit Gaza, he became a war photographer by virtue of circumstance, and his wartime posts soon went viral.

“As a photojournalist, I can’t watch this like anyone else, I’m from there, this is my home,” Azaiza said.

After surviving 108 days of Israeli bombardment, Azaiza managed to escape Gaza via Egypt, and he has since become an ambassador of sorts for the Palestinian territory, sharing the story of his people as the conflict rages on.

“Every time you feel like you regret leaving, but then you lose a friend, you lose a family, you say, OK, I saved my life,” Azaiza said.

Before the war, Azaiza had been hired to manage the online content for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, the humanitarian agency accused by Israel of providing cover for militants.

This month, he is touring the US to raise money for UNRWA USA, a nonprofit that collects funding for the agency.

“I can’t handle this much of fame ... it’s a real big responsibility,” Azaiza said from the fundraiser in Philadelphia.

“This is not me ... I’m waiting for the genocide to stop. I want to go back to Gaza, continue my work capturing pictures,” he added.

At one point, he blended into the crowd, posing for a selfie before shaking hands with the donors.

At the fundraiser, a UNRWA USA official solicited donations.

“Is there someone who wants to give $20,000? I would like to have $20,000. Nobody? Is there someone who wants to give $10,000? I would like to have $10,000,” the official calls out.

Once the call lowered to $5,000, five hands raised, and even more went up when asked for donations of $2,000 and $1,000.

One of the donors, Nabeel Sarwar, said Azaiza’s photographs “humanize” the people in Gaza.

“When you see a picture, when you see a child, you relate to that child, you relate to the body language, you relate to the dust on their face, the hunger, the sadness on their face,” Sarwar said.

“I think it’s those pictures that really brought home the real tragedy of what’s going on in Gaza.”

Veronica Murgulescu, a 25-year-old medical student from Philadelphia, concurred.

“I think that people like Motaz and other Gaza journalists have really struck a chord with us, because you can sense the authenticity,” she said.

“The mainstream media that we have here in the US, at least, and in the West, lacks authenticity,” she added.

Sahar Khamis, a communications professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in Arab and Muslim media in the Middle East, said Gazan journalists like Azaiza who have become social media influencers “reshape public opinion, especially among youth, not just in the Arab world, not just in the Middle East, but globally and internationally, including in the US.”

“The visuals are very, very important and very powerful and very compelling ... as we know in journalism, that one picture equals a thousand words.

“And in the case of war and conflict, it can equal a million words, because you can tell through these short videos and short images and photos a lot of things that you cannot say in a whole essay.”


Musk calls Lebanese president as Starlink seeks license

Updated 26 June 2025
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Musk calls Lebanese president as Starlink seeks license

  • Musk called Aoun and “expressed his interest in Lebanon and its telecommunications and Internet sectors“
  • Aoun invited Musk to visit Lebanon

BEIRUT: Billionaire businessman Elon Musk and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun spoke by phone to discuss making elements of Musk’s sprawling business empire available in Lebanon, a statement from Aoun’s office said on Thursday.

The statement said Musk called Aoun and “expressed his interest in Lebanon and its telecommunications and Internet sectors.”

Aoun invited Musk to visit Lebanon and said he was open to having Musk’s companies present in the country, which ranks among the countries with the lowest Internet speeds.

The call came just weeks after Aoun and other top Lebanese officials met with Starlink’s Global Director of Licensing and Development, Sam Turner, in Beirut for talks on providing satellite Internet services in Lebanon. US ambassador Lisa Johnson was pictured attending those meetings.

The negotiations have prompted some pushback in Lebanon. Internet access in the country has so far been operated exclusively by state-owned companies and their affiliates, who are lobbying the government not to license Starlink.

Starlink recently received licenses to operate in India and Lesotho.


Greece seeks cooperation with Libya to stop migration, PM says

Updated 26 June 2025
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Greece seeks cooperation with Libya to stop migration, PM says

  • Greece said it would deploy two frigates and one more vessel off Libya’s territorial waters to deter migrants from reaching its southern islands
  • Mitsotakis said authorities in Libya should cooperate with Greece to stop migrants

BRUSSELS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday that Libya should cooperate with Greece and Europe to help halt a surge in migration flows from the north African state.

Seaborne arrivals of migrants in Europe from the north of Africa, including war-torn Sudan, and the Middle East have spiked in recent months.

Greece said on Monday it would deploy two frigates and one more vessel off Libya’s territorial waters to deter migrants from reaching its southern islands of Crete and Gavdos.

“I will inform my colleagues about the significant increase in the number of people from eastern Libya and ask for the support of the European Commission so that the issue can be addressed immediately,” Mitsotakis said ahead of an European Union summit in Brussels that began on Thursday.

Mitsotakis said authorities in Libya should cooperate with Greece to stop migrants sailing from there or turn them back before they exit Libyan territorial waters.

He added that the EU’s migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Greece and Malta would travel to Libya early in July to discuss the issue.

Law and order has been weak in Libya since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with the country divided by factional conflict into eastern and western sections for over a decade.