Sudanese people in Cardiff have been sharing the distressing details of what life is like for their relatives who are living through the violence currently gripping the country. The capital, Khartoum, is ending its first week of clashes between warring factions who are grappling for control of Sudan, with civilians caught in the crossfire. At least 400 people are expected to have been killed so far while hopes of a ceasefire over Eid have also evaporated.
Around 35,000 Sudanese people are estimated to live in the UK, with Cardiff a place that many of them call home. With an end to the violence looking unlikely at this stage, we spoke to some of those who have been voicing their concerns for the safety of friends and family still in the country.
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One of those people is father of five Elfadil Hussein, who has lived in Leckwith, Cardiff, for the past 12 years. His brother Faisal lives in Khartoum and has a 14-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son. “The situation is very difficult for everyone, especially at the moment during the days of Ramadan. Eid celebrations have been cancelled and people can’t buy enough food,” the 52-year-old said.
“I can’t send any money home because the banks are closed. People from Cardiff want to support their relatives but they can’t. Shops are also closed but some will open up to customers that they know, but only one at a time, so if you don’t know the shop owners then it is tough.”
Elfadil’s aunt, Heja, also lives in Khartoum, near the airport in the east of the city which has seen fierce fighting, while his cousins and brother’s family live in the north of the capital. He told us of the danger they are in while the fighting ensues. “My brother’s kids are 14 and 16 and have been hiding under the bed. They are not allowed to open the windows and are not allowed out alone. They are hearing RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) being fired between sides. It’s not good. The military base is inside a residential area in the north of Khartoum, where my relatives live nearby, and because of this RPGs have been stored inside people’s houses.
“I am worried because I don’t see any end to this. The days are going to get worse and worse. The security is getting worse. The food and drink [situation] is getting worse. There is no clean water and electricity has been off for days.”
Another person whose family members are in this crossfire is Elbashir Idris, 27, from Butetown. He has lived in Cardiff for 22 years and has cousins as young as three years old, along with aunts and uncles of up to 80 years of age still in Khartoum.
“They live in the epicentre of the fighting,” he said. “A lot of people are migrating and fleeing in their numbers. It is pretty shocking, the shelling is indiscriminate and the attacks on the electricity grid are making it hard for people to charge their phones and communicate.
“There have been five days of non-stop shooting and my relatives have seen the sound of warplanes and artillery become the backdrop to their mornings and nights, the call to prayer has been replaced by gunfire.”
Elbashir visited the country during the unrest in 2019 and 2021 so has first-hand experience of what such a situation is like. It is for this reason that he holds out hope that his family will receive help. “It is worrying but I also feel confident in the ability of people on the ground to distribute aid within the communities once it is there, but getting it into the country in the first place is difficult,” he said. “The one loser in all of this is the Sudanese people. The fighting needs to stop and they need immediate aid and protection.”
Birair Ismail, 52, runs the Sudanese Community Association in Cardiff and South Wales and shared the frustrations of those who his charity supports towards the violence in their homeland. “The country has been struggling and fighting for peace for more than 50 years so we’ve already had enough of war,” he said.
"The war has nothing to do with the 40 million people in Sudan, the RSF is a militia with a political agenda and crimes against humanity are taking place. A friend of mine in London has two relatives who were killed in the war.”
Birair moved to Cardiff from Sudan in 1998 and his mother, brother and sister still live in Kosti, which is around 185 miles away from the fighting (roughly the distance between Cardiff and Manchester) although this doesn’t ease his concerns.
“My family are away from Khartoum where the fighting is but you can’t take anything for granted and I’m not just worried about my family, I'm worried about the whole nation. I’m very worried because we had a very bad experience in South Sudan and that’s why so many people fled the country. Civilians have been through enough,” he said.
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