Displaced Sudanese who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), arrive in the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on 28 October, 2025. Photo: AFP
Kadambari Raghukumar produces and presents Here Now, RNZ's weekly series on people from various global backgrounds living in Aotearoa. Her work in media has taken her from Kenya, to Sudan and across Asia.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a brutal civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
What began as a power struggle between two generals has devolved into a horrific humanitarian crisis.
More than 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 12 million people have been displaced.
In 2019 I spent time in Khartoum just days after President Omar Al Bashir's 30 year authoritarian regime ended, and before the transitional government was put in place.
I distinctly recall a sense of optimism on the streets during the revolution and people saying how it felt like a "freedom festival".
How did such a hopeful time, seemingly the start of a transition to democracy, turn into the unimaginable violence we are seeing now?
In this week's episode of RNZ's Here Now podcast, I speak to Darfuri Aucklanders Fathima Sanussi, Izzadine Abdallah, Hassaballah Hamid and Kaltam Hassan.
Hassaballah Hamid came to New Zealand a year ago through the UN refugee pathway. He's from Darfur, where in the past few weeks, death and destruction is everywhere.
On Oct 26, the RSF took over Al-Fasher, the last major city of Darfur held by the Sudanese army.
The RSF have killed nearly 2000 people there, while tens of thousands are still stranded the city as the militia seize more territory from the army in the south-west and center.
"This is now beyond tribalism, this is a proxy war on Sudan," Hamid said.
(L to R) Kaltam Hassan, Fathima Sanussi and Izzadine Abdallah. Photo: Supplied
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is widely accused of providing military support to the RSF, but UAE officials deny the allegations despite evidence presented in UN reports and international media investigations.
Famine has gripped the region, a once fertile part of the country known for growing food and pasture lands. While hospitals and schools have been destroyed across the Darfur region.
Over the weekend, Fathima Sanussi, an activist and former refugee from Sudan, organised a solidarity rally in Auckland, calling for an end to the violence.
"I'm from Darfur, it's more of a reason why this work is so important to me," she said.
"Right now, with everything that's happening and being away from home, it allows us to kind of understand the functionality of the way the world works.
"My parents were forcibly displaced. More than ever now, as a Sudanese person and someone that's particularly from Darfur, I want to be able to go back home one day."
Darfur is a complex and diverse region where the Fur people, the Masalit and Arab Sudanese have lived for centuries - some semi-nomadic, pastoral communities, others, indigenous to those lands.
Ethnic tensions between what are called Arab and non-Arab groups have simmered for decades in these parts.
Kaltam Hassan and her son Izzadine are Masalit, from Al Genina in Darfur. It's a region that is familiar with conflict.
In 2003, the Darfur Civil War brought extensive violence to the people of Al Genina, many of whom fled.
Sudan's vast natural reserves - gold, copper, iron ore, while not the only reason, are said to be one of the major reasons this war has been prolonged and attracted support from external players.
Sudan is Africa's 3rd largest gold producer and has reserves of iron, uranium ad copper across the country, particularly Darfur and Kordofan.
Fathima said: "It's not fair that our people have to bear the burden of it all, meanwhile feeding the rest of the world and giving the world luxury goods at the expense of their death.
"The violence in Darfur is a modern-day colonial project. And I think once we start reframing the language of how we start speaking about Sudan is when we're going to see effective conflict resolution."
Kaltam Hassan recalls a peaceful childhood and past life in the region, until ethnic tensions spilled over and the Janjaweed militia (from whom the RSF were formed) unleashed violence.
But like others, she also sees external support to the RSF amplifiying the scale of this current conflict.
"What happened in the past, it's already happened," Kaltam said.
"But once those people stop funding the RSF, the Janjaweed, then we can figure out how to stop the fighting. But with other people from outside us funding them, giving them more power, it doesn't matter how much our people are fighting, the problem won't stop because it's not just our problem anymore."
Sudanese across the diaspora wait and watch for the viciousness of this war to end, continuing to wish for a return to how things used to be.
"People in Darfur are agricultural people. If the war stops, all the people even in the refugee camps, they will all go back to Darfur because there's nowhere like home and they will start growing again.
"And that's the one thing I want to see, our people going back home and building what's already been broken down, growing our own food and just living the life that we used to live before all this started" Kaltam said.
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