ESCAPE FROM KHARTOUM

A family of nine's desperate attempt to find safety in Sudan.

- BY NICOLAS NIARCHOS

A camp for displaced persons in the Nuba Mountains. Wanis and Intisar would feel safe there, even if conditions were grim.

Like most civilians in Sudan, Wanis and his wife, Intisar, were unprepared when war broke out in Khartoum. The first day of fighting, April 15, 2023, was a Saturday. They'd planned to visit a cousin of Wanis's who was undergoing treatment for diabetes at a hospital in Bahri, a neighborhood on the eastern side of the sprawling capital. Intisar and Wanis lived in Ombada, a western suburb; to visit the cousin, they'd have to cross the Nile, which bisects the city.

While preparing to leave, they learned that there had been clashes at the airport between Sudan's Army and a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. Wanis worked as a courier at the airport, and wondered if the fighting would put his job in jeopardy. The R.S.F. soldiers, who followed a wealthy general known as Hemedti, were engaged in a contest of raw power against Sudan's de-facto leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Intisar proposed cancelling the hospital visit, fearing that they might be targeted for violence by the warring groups, each of which was led by Arabs. Both Wanis and Intisar belonged to the Nuba people, a Black population long persecuted by Sudanese Arab leaders. But Wanis was undaunted.