"It was the longest and darkest night of my life, one I can never forget."
In one part of the war-torn state, militia fighters besieged a mosque, then sent poisoned food to civilians sheltering inside.
In nearby villages, they began knocking on doors, threatening residents, and looting homes. Soon, the violence escalated into mass killings and sexual assaults targeting women and girls.
When mutual aid volunteers began hearing reports of these crimes being committed late last year by fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the central state of Al Jazirah, it was quickly clear what was needed: a mass evacuation.
What followed was the largest civilian-led rescue effort of Sudan's two-year war, a brutal conflict between the paramilitary-turned-rebel RSF and the Sudanese army that has pushed parts of the country into famine.
Local volunteers - best known for running communal soup kitchens - had formed neighbourhood-based emergency response rooms and other types of mutual aid collectives across Sudan at the outset of the war, stepping in as international aid groups faltered under access restrictions and mounting insecurity.
Now, the emergency response rooms in Al Jazirah were taking these efforts even further, bringing civilians out of a devastated state as the RSF was committing one of its worst atrocities to date.
The volunteer efforts were hampered from the start by a communications blackout, scarce funds, and a rapidly changing security situation. They were forced to constantly reroute evacuation vehicles and track displaced people scattered across the state.
Still, there was no time to lose, recalled Mohamed Khalafallah, a 54-year-old physician and volunteer from Al Jazirah, who said hundreds of militiamen raided his village "without the slightest mercy or compassion".
"My heart sank because I knew what was coming," Khalafallah said. "We had seen it in Khartoum, El Geneina, and Wad Medani [other places where the RSF had carried out massacres]. "Time was of the essence, and we had to act quickly."
After weeks of painstaking effort, volunteers raised some $180,000 to evacuate vast numbers of people from Al Jazirah. They drove them to safer states across Sudan and provided support wherever possible at their destinations.
In the process, the volunteers showed yet another face to Sudan's Nobel Peace Prize-nominated solidarity networks: capable not only of humanitarian action but of managing highly complex security situations during active hostilities.
Hundreds of people were still killed in the RSF attacks, and some women, fearing the advancing RSF, tragically took their own lives. Still, for those the volunteers helped escape, the impact was clear.
"When I saw the water and the box of biscuits [handed out by volunteers at evacuation points], I felt like I was breaking my fast on the first day of Eid," said one evacuee.
Months after the atrocities, volunteers continue to support the displaced evacuees, while others are returning to Al Jazirah as the army regains control of the state, part of a broader offensive in recent weeks against the paramilitary group.
However, humanitarian funding cuts - resulting from the suspension of the US aid on which local aid groups rely in Sudan - have left many without the resources to assist people.
Future evacuation efforts could be in jeopardy.
A former sanctuary
Nestled between the White Nile and Blue Nile, Al Jazirah is an economic and agricultural heartland. When the war began, its capital, Wad Madani, emerged as the first safe haven for people fleeing Khartoum. Few expected it would face its own crisis.
RSF forces invaded Al Jazirah in late 2023, seizing Wad Medani and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The state was then cut off from the outside world, receiving little assistance.
Continuous RSF attacks culminated in October 2024, when villages in eastern Al Jazirah were targeted in brutal acts of violence that drew comparisons to the group's genocidal campaigns in the western Darfur region.
Khalafallah, the 54-year-old physician, said more than 100 people were killed by RSF fighters in his village. He said they raped women and kidnapped others for ransom.
Sarah Abbas (whose name has been changed for security reasons) said the night when RSF fighters invaded her village "was the longest and darkest" of her life. "It is impossible for me to forget it," she said. "I was unable to sleep that entire night."
Abbas said fighters started banging on her door at 2.30am. Luckily, one fighter suggested they move on to a neighbouring house, which seemed to have more valuables, and return later. It was at that moment that Abbas's family escaped.
Emergency response rooms had carried out evacuations before in other parts of Sudan but mainly for families and individuals, or for camps in Darfur.
The operation this time was on a different scale, but the Al Jazirah volunteers were well-positioned. They had extensive local knowledge and had received training from other emergency response rooms in the months leading up to the crisis.
When the RSF first took control of Al Jazirah, there were no emergency response rooms in place. But the Localization Coordination Council (LCC), a national coordinating structure for emergency response rooms, stepped in to help local volunteers establish them.
Abdullah Mohamed, an LCC volunteer, said over 200 youth in Al Jazirah were trained on how to use the emergency response room's F system, a platform enabling coordination between groups and the tracking of projects.
Mohamed said a special council was established for the state to facilitate effective networking and coordination, while an initial pilot grant of several thousand dollars enabled them to kick off operations.
The technical groundwork served its purpose: When the RSF attacks began, the volunteers were in a position to act.
Dangerous journeys
Securing funding for evacuations became the first priority as attacks started. Initial support came from Sudanese benefactors and the LCC. Then came money from international aid groups.
The international aid groups were "swift", said Hajooj Kuka, an LCC liaison officer. Still, he said "bureaucracy and banking procedures" caused significant delays - with funds taking around three weeks to process.
As money arrived, the emergency response rooms decided what vehicles to use. Mujahid al-Rashid, a volunteer, said they opted for older cars and buses, considering them less likely to attract RSF looters. Even broken-down vehicles were put to use.
At first, volunteers hired flatbed trucks - typically used for heavy cargo - to transport hundreds of people at a time. But they soon realised elderly passengers and pregnant and disabled people needed proper seats. Smaller buses were brought in for them.
Drivers were chosen based on their familiarity to the RSF, said Samer Mustafa, a volunteer involved in protection and safety issues. Those with familiar faces who had previously brought goods into Al Jazirah while it was under RSF control were preferred.
Mustafa said volunteers instructed civilians to describe the evacuation as citizen-led, rather than organised by any specific group, like the emergency response rooms, which are often falsely accused by the warring parties of supporting one side or the other.
"We have remained as neutral as possible," Mustafa said. "Our communications have been limited to emphasising that our efforts are purely humanitarian. This is to ensure the safety of the citizens themselves."
The next challenge was determining where to collect people. Civilians had dispersed across a vast area and, given the lack of communication options, volunteers had a limited ability to coordinate gathering spots.
Where possible, volunteers said they used WhatsApp to communicate with fleeing families, though in many cases they relied on word of mouth and their own knowledge of where people were heading - it was, after all, their own families on the move.
Gathering sites were eventually installed in areas closest to where displaced people were fleeing, and as far away as possible from known fighting spots and the RSF's military checkpoints.
Still, evacuees often took several days to reach the assembly points, with the vulnerable and wounded taking the longest. Many people died along the way due to hunger and thirst.
Khalafallah, the physician, said his family walked for six days without food, water, or a means to communicate. Among them was his 80-year-old mother, a newborn niece, and an injured nephew who he had bandaged up using cardboard and underwear.
Khalafallah said many displaced people were transporting disabled and elderly relatives in donkey-drawn carts, which they had to pull themselves after the RSF had looted their livestock.
"There was great tension as the Rapid Support Forces vehicles pursued the citizens after they fled," Khalafallah said.
Massive needs
At the assembly points, volunteers were stationed to receive displaced people. They brought Starlink satellite devices (useful in conflict zones where internet connections are severed), as well as food, water, lifesaving medicine, and dignity kits for women.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Travel was considered safest in the morning, and only a few vehicles were allowed to move at any one time so as not to draw excess attention, said al-Rashid, the volunteer mentioned above.
Safe travel routes were identified based on conversations between drivers and volunteer protection teams from Al Jazirah's different emergency response rooms. Routes were changed multiple times as the security situation developed.
Both volunteers and evacuees faced risks along the roads. There were incidents of looting, inspections, and the confiscation of belongings people carried with them.
Still, the evacuation process continued for many weeks, and is still ongoing, though at a reduced pace. In the first two weeks, nearly 13,000 individuals, including children, women, and the elderly, were evacuated. That number is now much higher.
Volunteers coordinated throughout with emergency response rooms in the different destinations they took people to, and consulted with local governments in the various states, said Abdullah Al-Amin, another Al Jazirah volunteer.
Volunteers in host states supported the arrivals through communal soup kitchens, providing dignity kits for women, as well as psychological support and safe shelter to more than 180 women who had been raped.
However, given the number of displaced people, many fleeing with only the clothes on their backs, the needs were immense. What was secured - food, water, medicine, clothing, and blankets - was barely enough to support 2% of the displaced population.
"As women, we suffer greatly from a lack of basic necessities and accompanying social stigma," said Hawa al-Khair, who was evacuated to Kassala state. "The cold is intense, and children cannot bear it. They also suffer from malnutrition."
Abdullah, an evacuation coordinator, some of whose family took 11 days to reach their final destination, said evacuees are still facing mental health issues, as well as disrupted livelihoods and "increased vulnerability to exploitation".
Still, like all volunteers, Abdullah said the events of Al Jazirah had many positive impacts, underscoring the power of Sudanese solidarity - its creativity and resilience even in the toughest of circumstances.
Edited by Philip Kleinfeld.
