Perpignan, France – Syrian-born photographer Abdulmonam Eassa travelled to Sudan as the fall of its longtime dictator, toppled by massive protests, raised hopes of a democratic rebirth. Instead, he witnessed the country descend into another military takeover, rivalry and all-out war. RFI spoke to him about the resulting photo series, War in Sudan: A Nation Trapped, which is now on show at the Visa pour l'Image festival in southern France.
Issued on: 05/09/2026 - 16:15
4 min Reading time
The series, which was awarded a World Press Photo prize earlier this year, is made up of images captured between 2020 and 2025 – from the wake of the 2019 revolution, to the start of the war between the army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023 and the worsening of the conflict, which remains ongoing. Speaking to RFI at the Visa pour l'Image photo festival in Perpignan, Eassa said the series was both a record of Sudan's abandonment by the rest of the world, and a testament to the resilience of its people. RFI: What first brought you to Sudan? Abdulmonam Eassa: When I went to Sudan the first time, it was at the end of December 2020. I was really willing to going there to better understand the Sudanese revolution. It was during the transition period. I wanted to know how the Sudanese people were able to gather thousands of people in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in December 2018. And how they managed to kick out the Omar al-Bashir regime which stayed in power for 30 years. RFI: How has your own background shaped the way you see and photograph conflict? AE: I mean, it's Sudan. It's totally different, the environment and the geography, even compared to Syria from where I started working as a photographer. But like my first years of work covering the siege of my hometown in eastern Ghouta, it was very tough, heavy, mentally and physically. Of course that taught me a lot and gave me a lot of experience to work in such hard circumstances.
