When Mohamed Suleiman entered the telecoms office in Port Sudan on 13 January, he began to cry. His phone had been silent for most of Sudan’s civil war, which began exactly three years ago following a power struggle between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. The journalist and academic had made it to Port Sudan after being trapped in el-Fasher, a city largely cut off from the world by a communications blackout.

A Chronicle of Silence and Loss

Suleiman described the silence as ‘a suffocating feeling’ because he was watching systematic killings through drone strikes and bombs. He says the 18-month siege by the RSF on el-Fasher was ‘like the Day of Judgment on Earth.’ The fall of el-Fasher, which occurred in October last year, was one of the most brutal chapters of the civil war, which began in Khartoum on 15 April 2023.

The conflict soon spread to other parts of the country and has been particularly vicious in the western region of Darfur, the RSF stronghold. As the fighting enters its fourth year, the conflict has led to a de-facto partition between territory held by the army and the paramilitaries. Millions of Sudanese citizens are scattered, some outside the country, forced from their homes in the midst of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Horror of Famine and Death

Suleiman’s account details the worst of the war, stripping civilians of food, shelter, life, and even identity. Civilians in el-Fasher were caught up in the fighting between the RSF and local armed groups. As the siege tightened, a UN-backed food monitor declared famine conditions. The relentless daily trauma of death and hunger exploded into apocalyptic scenes as people tried to escape when the RSF closed in.

Suleiman described seeing ‘dead children in the streets’ and ‘women crying from extreme hunger and thirst, too weak to carry their children.’ He says, ‘There is no food, no water, no first aid to save them, or to carry them with you. You cannot do anything. So you step over them, jump over them, cry, and continue walking.’

Many tried to flee to the nearest safe place, the town of Tawila. The road was littered with the dead and injured, ‘very, very large numbers, countless numbers.’ Suleiman says, ‘If there had been a way to call for help, we wouldn’t have had to leave so many wounded behind.’

The Struggle for Communication

Communications became unstable from the beginning of the war due to fighting and fuel shortages. This quickly evolved into a full blackout, reinforced when the RSF laid siege in May 2024. Some people smuggled in Starlink devices, but they were very expensive and restricted by the army when it was in control of the city. The RSF confiscated any they found.

Journalists who accessed Starlink devices faced great risks. Suleiman says the RSF considers them affiliated with security agencies and accuses them of espionage. The army, on the other hand, accuses them of being ‘spotters’ who identify targets for the enemy. These accusations harmed many journalists and the transmission of truth from el-Fasher.

Suleiman was also exposed to the same risks as everyone else. In July 2025, a shell fell less than two metres from him as he was on his way home. He survived but lay on the ground for about half an hour, holding a phone that was unable to call for help. He says, ‘If I had been injured, I would have died.’

Suleiman witnessed the death of many children, ‘even if a donkey cart is moving, and a drone hits it, it contains children.’ Under such circumstances, people clung to their faith in God. Neighbours would come to the Quran circle in the house, and they would read parts of the Quran during shelling.

He says, ‘As soon as I arrived in Port Sudan, I prostrated in the airport and cried intensely because I never imagined I would reach a safe haven.’ Suleiman prayed again when he finally reached Port Sudan in January this year after a journey of more than two months through Chad.

Although Suleiman had reached safety, he had lost all his identification documents. Retrieving them made him feel like a person again, but that was another kind of fight with bureaucracy. He says, ‘I spent 22 days going around offices. The last regrettable thing they said to me was to bring my mother. And to bring a number of witnesses.’

Suleiman is reconnected to the world, but he says, ‘after witnessing the horrors of war, the world does not know what happened in el-Fasher city, nor does the state know.’