鈥楾hey are our people鈥�: How community kitchens are piecing Sudan back together
| Abuja, Nigeria
This is the second of four articles from Sudan that we are publishing this week, highlighting that country鈥檚 travails and citizens鈥� efforts to overcome them. Read the first one here.
As volunteers chopped onion and cubed lamb on a recent morning at the Abu Shouk displacement camp in Darfur, their goal was simple: to feed the hungry.
The fragrant rice dish they were preparing that day, known as lamb kabsa, was enough for 3,000 of the camp鈥檚 residents. In El Fasher, a city suffering from , that meal had life-and-death stakes. But for the volunteers, it also carried profound symbolism.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onA network of community aid groups is providing pivotal support for communities affected by Sudan鈥檚 civil war. By doing so, they are also showing that the ties that bind Sudanese together are stronger than the violence tearing their country apart.
鈥淪haring food with people is deeply rooted in Sudanese culture,鈥� explains Salah Adam, a volunteer with Abu Shouk鈥檚 鈥渆mergency response room,鈥� the local aid group that organizes the daily soup kitchen here. 鈥淏efore the war, we used to eat our meals outside our homes and invite passersby to eat with us.鈥�
Now, in this improvised city of tents and mud-brick houses, sharing a meal became a small tether to that old life.
Since war broke out between two factions of Sudan鈥檚 military in 2023, the conflict has been unsparingly devastating for civilians. Among other crises the war has generated, half of Sudan鈥檚 population regularly does not , and 8.5 million people are facing what global experts call a .
With international appeals for assistance severely underfunded and aid delivery repeatedly restricted by fighting, emergency response rooms have stepped in across the country to fill the gaps. The group's efforts earned them a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, and a spot on at least .听
Through their work, they are also forcefully asserting that the Sudanese people鈥檚 solidarity is stronger than the violence that has engulfed their country.
鈥淭hey are our people: our family, our friends, and our neighbors,鈥� says Waleed Khojali, who like others in this article spoke to the Monitor by phone from Sudan. He is a volunteer at a network of emergency response rooms in the East Nile area of the capital, Khartoum, that together serve more than 20,000 people daily at 150 soup kitchens. 鈥淪omeone has to lighten them up and give them hope in the midst of this war. We believe it is our duty.鈥�
A tradition of solidarity
The civil war began in April 2023, the result of a violent power struggle between the country鈥檚 two top generals. Emergency response rooms began springing up soon after.
But the tradition of Sudanese communities rallying behind each other in times of crisis is much older. There鈥檚 even a word for it: nafeer, which means 鈥渃all to mobilize鈥� or 鈥渃ollective work.鈥�
Nafeer is about 鈥渟ocial solidarity,鈥� explains Ismael Hagana, founder of Global Aid Hand, a nonprofit that provides aid to displaced Sudanese. In times of struggle 鈥� from to wars to 鈥� nafeer asks Sudanese to help 鈥渢hose in need, especially the most vulnerable.鈥�
For many young Sudanese, nafeer was a central part of the future they imagined when they poured into the streets in 2018 and 2019 to protest the rule of Sudan鈥檚 longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir.
Those protests eventually unseated Mr. al-Bashir, but then the military-run transitional council that replaced him refused to cede power. Last year, a power struggle within that council exploded into war between Sudan鈥檚 armed forces and the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
As the war spread, young pro-democracy activists and other community organizers began a new form of nafeer. Although there is no precise data on the number of active emergency response rooms, a year and a half into the war, they are known to be operating in at least half of Sudan鈥檚 18 states.
Largely funded by donations solicited on social media from Sudanese at home and in the diaspora, the emergency response rooms respond to a wide variety of community needs. These include , organizing evacuations, and filling the gas tanks of ambulances.
But there is one constant: Every room operates at least two community kitchens.
A lifeline against hunger
The setup of these kitchens varies, but they typically enlist local volunteers to purchase, prepare, and distribute one simple daily meal to those in need.
鈥淵ou cannot imagine how excited children get whenever they see us from afar with food in donkey carts,鈥� says Mr. Adam, the emergency response volunteer in Abu Shouk. He has lived in the camp since the mass killings in Darfur forced him from his own home in 2003. In the past year, this and other camps in the area have swelled as millions have been forced to flee fighting once again.
It hardly matters, he says, that one serving of food must often be shared among as many as five people. They are just grateful that 鈥淲hat could be their only meal for the day has arrived.鈥�
Indeed, for many, this daily meal is a lifeline. Hunger is an constant for some 26 million Sudanese 鈥� half the population 鈥� and no less than 3.7 million Sudanese children under the age of 5 are experiencing life-threatening malnutrition. In early August, in Zamzam, a displacement camp near Abu Shouk, and experts warn that nearly 800,000 Sudanese are currently facing 鈥渃atastrophic鈥� hunger, which is characterized by 鈥�.鈥�
This crisis is entirely human-made. Fighting has forced millions of Sudanese to abandon their farms, food aid convoys have , and , the Sudanese military sealed off a major border crossing from Chad, severely restricting aid delivery.
In Abu Shouk, these conditions often force community kitchens to make hard choices. When there isn鈥檛 enough food, volunteers prioritize feeding children first.
No guarantee of safety
Emergency response rooms have also been caught in the crossfire. Volunteers report that they have been accused by both sides in the conflict of working for the other.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 guarantee the safety of volunteers who go to the market or cook in the kitchen,鈥� says Mr. Khojali, the Khartoum volunteer. He says three volunteers were killed in their houses, and 15 others were recently detained and tortured for two weeks by the Rapid Support Forces under suspicion that they were working with the Sudanese military. These accounts could not be independently verified by the Monitor.
But these challenges have not stopped emergency response room volunteers, many of whom see the work as a calling.
鈥淲e have limited resources,鈥� explains Ismail Ibrahim, a volunteer at the emergency response room in Shagra, a village near El Fasher in Darfur. Still, he says, 鈥淲e want everyone to have something to eat, no matter how little.鈥�
Part 1: A journalist recounts his daughter鈥檚 miraculous birth in war-torn Sudan
