SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Right now, Sudan is experiencing the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis. That's according to the United Nations, which says more than 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Nearly 26 million people are facing acute hunger. It's all a result of the fighting between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.
NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu has been covering this conflict since the beginning, but in the past month, he was finally able to cover it from inside the country. He's been sharing his reporting on NPR all week. And today, we wanted to take a step back and talk more with Emmanuel about the experience of reporting in that war zone. He began by describing the city of Port Sudan, which has become the country's wartime capital.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: There's a lot happening there. It's kind of strange. There are loads of diplomats, military personnel, intelligence personnel, journalists, obviously, from different countries, NGOs, international businesses, etc. And, you know, we're all staying at these expensive hotels, eating at these restaurants, some of them high-end restaurants. So basically, you arrive in this really odd bubble...
DETROW: Yeah.
AKINWOTU: ...That's its kind of own world. And then you leave the bubble, and the further you go out, the more it hits you, and you start to see the city is really filling up with displaced people staying in abandoned buildings, on the streets, even in schools that have turned to displacement camps. I went to one school, and there were hundreds of people there and so many children. Some of them were dancing and singing to pop music in this tent, learning dance routines.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: The camp is run by UNICEF, and the workers there were just trying to keep the kids busy and occupied. But even there, the stories were horrendous from people who were staying there. Then we visited hospitals.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: As you see, two patients in one bed.
AKINWOTU: And the crisis comes into fuller view. It was just astonishing seeing these unbelievably packed wards full of sick people, sick children, so thin. And half of the country is facing starvation, and people are already suffering famine-like conditions, so that was really a kind of window into that.
DETROW: Your reporting eventually takes you to the center of the country, to a city called Omdurman. And when you arrived, a battle had just taken place. Tell us what you saw there.
AKINWOTU: Yeah, so we have to be cautious and sort of wait for this battle to end. And we arrive in the city, and we're staying in a part, really, that's - there's a lot of normal life, normal things - people going to cafes, to supermarkets, to restaurants. But then we leave that part and go and travel around the city, and it's totally devastating. We went to a mosque called the Sheikh Gariballah Mosque.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Singing in non-English language).
AKINWOTU: It was completely in ruins, bullet holes punctured all across its walls, torched cars in the compound, glass all over the grounds and bullet casing. We even found shell parts lying around. But it was open. You could hear the call to prayer. People were going in for Friday prayers, and people had returned to those areas.
DETROW: Can you tell us any - about any particular conversations that you had there?
AKINWOTU: Yes. I met this man called Mohammed Khair. It was really interesting. He came up to me. He'd seen that - the NPR logo on my microphone, and he was - oh, I know NPR. And he - and actually, he was born in Omdurman, born in the area, but he lived in D.C., actually, and New York and on the East Coast of the U.S. for, like, 10 years of his life.
DETROW: Oh, interesting.
AKINWOTU: So we just got talking, and he told me he lived nearby, and he basically started to give me a tour of the area.
MOHAMMED KHAIR: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: And so he kind of is showing us around through what feels really like a ghost town - all the houses destroyed, people's gardens, their backyards just blown open, you know, even people's, like, laundry lines or their tables and chairs. A lot of the houses had this big red X out on the front, painted by the military, and it is done to show when RSF fighters who were embedded in those houses were defeated. Obviously, you can see how the fighting destroyed just people's everyday lives. We saw schools destroyed, hospitals, cinemas. It was just stunning. And a lot of Omdurman is like this. So much of it is still dangerous.
DETROW: Over the course of two weeks, did anything change when it comes to how you were thinking about this, how you were approaching this, what you were seeing, what you were feeling?
AKINWOTU: When you're there, especially in Omdurman, you know, you're just hearing - sometimes you can hear the army's airstrikes in Khartoum, and - but you're always hearing the shelling in Omdurman, and it's just constant. And the first couple days, I just couldn't understand how someone can live here. But obviously, people don't have a choice.
DETROW: Yeah.
AKINWOTU: This is their home. It got to a point where I thought that I was getting used to the shelling. But then sometimes, it'd sound so near that I would just jump, in interviews at times, or jerk. And sometimes, even people around me would, like, smile or even laugh around me because this has just been their...
DETROW: Yeah.
AKINWOTU: ...Day to day. They don't even really think about it or try not to think about it.
DETROW: Even though that is the obvious reaction to something like that, but they're just...
AKINWOTU: Yeah.
DETROW: ...They're - have just gotten numb to it because, like you said, they have no choice, and they have to adapt.
AKINWOTU: Absolutely. And in a way, you just don't have a choice but to become numb to it because how can you live...
DETROW: Yeah.
AKINWOTU: ...That way? And I think that that really was a reminder, while I was there constantly, that you're just voyeuring in here. You know, you're here for a short period. But, like, everyone you're meeting and speaking to has found ways to adapt to this absolutely insane context and are really just living in a state of survival.
DETROW: You were reporting on the ground in Sudan for about two weeks. It's been a couple weeks since you've left the country, as you've been working through all this material and filing stories, and I'm wondering what's sticking in your mind from this experience? Any particular stories, any particular scenes that you just have in your head?
AKINWOTU: Yeah. There was a day where we were walking around, and we found this man called Homeini. He was with his nephew, and they were one of the few people who'd moved back to their street. Their home had been destroyed, including the outer wall, this brick wall just in front of their house. It was really hot that day. It was close to 100 degrees. And these men were outside just drenched in sweat, just slowly rebuilding the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: It was really dangerous that day. You know, there was still a lot of shelling even in the area, so we couldn't stay long. And, you know, just something that's just a bit - I guess it's just the - in the nature of doing journalism this way. But it's just odd as well. You know, you have me and our team of journalists and military escorts, and we're literally rushing to get out of this area because it's so dangerous, but rushing away from this man and his nephew that's just there just kind of slowly building the wall of their home - and I think it just, like, really kind of fixes in your mind that, you know, for whatever you see and face there, this is just a tiny drop in the ocean. And this is just a few moments out of really 18 months of fighting that people in Sudan are living through every day.
DETROW: Yeah. It's just become, as terrible as it is, just everyday life for so many people. They're figuring out how to go about their lives...
AKINWOTU: Yeah.
DETROW: ...In this setting.
AKINWOTU: Yeah. There was this one moment where we were in a hospital, and we were hearing shelling while we were at the hospital for hours. And then people who were injured in those attacks were brought in, and the scene was insane - just blood everywhere, dead bodies, injuries. And the doctor turned to me and was like - he obviously could see my face, and he was like, you know, this is our everyday life. This is our normal.
DETROW: That's NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu telling us about his reporting from Sudan. Thanks so much.
AKINWOTU: Thanks a lot.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
