RENK, South Sudan: As a young man in the mid-1980s, Daud Mahmoud Abdullah left his home in Aweil in South Sudan and headed north. It was a time of war. South Sudan was still part of Sudan and was fighting for independence, in a conflict that would claim about 2 million lives.
He never went back. But now, aged 60 and after 6 months in a Sudanese prison, he is closer to home than he’s been in 40 years. This July, he finally crossed the border back into his native South Sudan, taking a deep breath and reminding himself, “I am alive.”
After everything that has happened to him, it feels like a miracle.
Sudan – once his place of refuge – has been embroiled in a brutal civil war since April 2023 that has killed 40,000 people and displaced nearly 13 million more, according to UN agencies.
Abdullah lived in the town of Wad Madani, capital of Al-Jazirah State, about 135km south of Khartoum. There had been incursions into the area by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force once known as the Janjaweed who were notorious for mass killings, rapes and other atrocities in Darfur two decades ago. More recently, the RSF have again been accused of by the International Criminal Court of committing war crimes, including the attacks on famine-hit Zamzam and other camps in North Darfur.
