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Fatima’s five-year-old son was cradling the body of his murdered mother when the vehicle they were using to flee the violence in West Darfur reached the village.
By Yousra Elbagir, Africa correspondent @YousraElbagir
Monday, May 29, 2023, 08:58, UK
Sitting on mats under a leafy thistle tree, men in white robes carefully cut off pieces of white matter.
They string it together slowly with high precision and experience.
Another shroud of another life lost in senseless violence.
More men arrive and raise their hands in prayer, mourning the recently deceased.
The latest casualty of militia terrorization of their community lies in a two-room morgue a few meters away.
Fatima was eight months pregnant and was traveling by cart with her young son and daughter to Hajar Hadid in eastern Chad.
She left her husband in violence in El Geneina, the capital of Sudan’s West Darfur state, where fleeing residents reported a city-wide massacre.
Zainab, Fatima’s sister, says her five-year-old nephew, the Sheikh, was carrying his pregnant mother’s body when the carriage arrived in the village.
She rushed with her relatives to Adre Central Hospital.
Photo: The men tie the shrouds together with great precision and expertise
They could feel the weight of Fatima’s body, but they hoped that the baby in her womb was still alive.
Hospital workers were cleaning blood from the floor when they arrived at Dr. Mahmoud Adam’s office.
He said Fatima was dead when she arrived and they were quickly able to confirm that the child was dead.
“Since the war began in Khartoum, many wounded civilians have crossed the border from Darfur,” said Dr. Mahmoud, whose hospital now has treatment tents run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on its territory.
He recalls the genocide of 2003 and notes that there is not much difference between then and now.
“It’s sad to see people die and suffer like this,” he said.
What is happening in Sudan?
Michael Drummond
@employee
The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were engaged in a power struggle that erupted into the conflict on 15 April.
Since then, hundreds have been killed and 1.4 million have been driven from their homes.
Those remaining in the capital, Khartoum, suffer from failing services such as electricity, water and telephone networks.
Looters ransacked homes, mostly in well-to-do neighborhoods.
Several ceasefires were announced but with limited success.
Saudi Arabia and the United States said the army and the RSF repeatedly violated the recent truce and impeded humanitarian access and the restoration of basic services.
The fighting also spread to the fragile region of Darfur, and further affected the western city of El Geneina, which witnessed an onslaught of militia attacks that destroyed its infrastructure and killed hundreds.
Image: Markings of the place where Fatima’s blood had just been drawn are visible on the ground
We walk to the morgue where Fatima lies covered on a cement slab.
“She was shot in the back of her head,” he said.
Dr. Mahmoud believes she died instantly.
Zainab sits under a tree outside the morgue building.
Her eyes are wet and wide, and every two minutes she cries sobs in her dark time.
Fatima’s young children lie silently on her lap.
More families arrive from their village as the body is being prepared for burial.
Image: The deceased woman’s sister, Zainab, waits outside the morgue with her family members
Zainab hands over various phones as she calls family from all over the area to offer their condolences.
One call did not come from Fatima Adam’s husband in El Geneina, as communications were disrupted for more than a week.
The only information from there comes from fleeing residents who made it safely through the violence-ridden region.
They say the city is burning and there are too many deaths to count.
Deep in the Garden, Adam is still unaware of the murders of his wife and unborn child.
Read more about the Sudan crisis: the scale of destruction in before and after photos
Photo: MSF doctors treat the wounded on the hospital grounds
Nobody can reach him to deliver the news.
Fatima emerges from the morgue wrapped in a white shroud.
She is hitched on the back of a military-grade pickup truck by the men of her family as a mob of women rings out.
The cries carry more than just loss, but notes of dread and panic.
The dreadful anticipation that there is more grief to come.
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