A Maltese aid worker recently returned from Sudan has spoken of the famine and mass displacement facing the country amid an appalling civil war that entered its third year on Tuesday.

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) media and communications adviser Karl Schembri said Sudan was facing the “biggest displacement crisis on earth,” with 15 million people forced to leave their homes. 

Describing nightmare conditions in the country including “massacres, mass rapes and mass looting,” Schembri explained the Sudanese were now facing famine, with many farmers unable to work the land and the economy floundering.

Meanwhile, “massive” funding cuts announced by the Trump administration in the US have seen aid to the struggling country drastically reduced, “making lives more miserable for people who depend on it”. 

Schembri, a former journalist, spent two weeks documenting the situation in Sudan last month after travelling to the war-torn country from his home in Nairobi, Kenya, via Chad.

“The area where I was staying is called Al Junaynah. It’s the capital of West Darfur and the site of massacres and atrocious violence from fighting two years ago,” he said.

“Long stretches of it are ghost towns; there are abandoned buildings, destroyed and damaged buildings. There are images that are just haunting... the ghosts are still there, and they will be there for a long time to come.

”Speaking via video call from Nairobi, Schembri described a “heartbreaking” meeting with four orphans living in an abandoned home who had travelled over 1,000 km to escape the fighting.

“I realised that in this bare, abandoned home, every wall was showing illustrations of the fighting they fled from; guns, artillery, drones, pick-up trucks with heavy machine guns on them and people fleeing, running from the guns,” he said. 

“This is the nightmare that they fled from.”

‘Dying of starvation’

Schembri explained the widespread fighting gripping the country had been “extremely devastating for the economy,” leading to rapid inflation driving severe food insecurity.

“The worst-hit areas are inaccessible, and that is a big part of the reason why they are going through famine. There are areas which have been under siege, completely cut off, which you’ll barely ever see in pictures,” he said. 

Describing food as scarce and “extremely expensive, so unaffordable for much of the population,” Schembri said around half of the population, some 25 million people, were left hungry. 

“People have died of starvation – and have been starved by the parties to this conflict who have made aid impossible to reach them,” he said, adding the fighting had left the market unable to keep up with the population’s needs. 

“But on top of all that, then you have these massive funding cuts, which are the biggest ever cuts we’ve witnessed across the world... aid which will no longer reach those who need it.”

Last month, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi warned that “brutal funding cuts” announced by the White House were putting “millions at risk” as he prepared staff for mass layoffs 

Meanwhile, earlier this week it emerged that the US embassy in Malta could face closure as the Trump administration seeks to slash some $30 billion from the State Department by scaling back diplomatic missions and drastically reducing foreign aid.

‘Only lifeline’

Recounting the story of a woman left blinded and partially deaf when her family home was targeted in an attack that claimed the lives of her five children, Schembri said she had described a local NRC access centre as her “only lifeline”.

“Knowing these centres might close down was extremely worrying for her... She was saying, ‘where do we go after this?’” 

Earlier this month, the organisation said the “most severe US funding cuts ever, on top of aid cuts by several European donors” had forced it to close access centres, halt farmer subsidies and scale back on education programmes. Whenever I come back home from these places, I hear their voices 

Describing the access centres as a “one-stop shop” for those impacted by the crisis, Schembri explained that the centres helped distribute aid and acted as community centres.

Meanwhile, a bakery subsidy programme in Sudan that had lowered the price of bread by three-quarters had also been frozen, he said. 

‘It’s evil’

But with US and European citizens facing rising costs and increasing economic uncertainty, what is Schembri’s response to those who argue charity should start at home?

“Firstly, there are welfare systems that should already be helping these people in their own state. And secondly, that’s pitting one level of misery against another, which is just nefarious,” he stressed.

“It’s evil, and just pitting the homeless, the people who have no access to healthcare in big, wealthy countries because of their domestic injustices... against the people of Sudan or the people of Yemen or Palestine, as if they are not the same humanity.”

The civil war in Sudan has displaced millions and left many children orphans. 

He added that large countries should also take responsibility for “allowing these conflicts to fester, [and] war criminals to get on with what they’re doing and making things worse”.

Turning to Malta, Schembri believes the country is going through a “very difficult period”, pointing to what he describes as “dangerous discourse that is being peddled”.

“When I see what is being discussed in terms of how we treat refugees, people crossing into our borders, risking their lives and our adherence to the human rights conventions... this plays to populist feelings of ‘these are not our problem’.

“I just appeal to the level-headed part of the electorate who still have values, who care to stand up to this. No, don’t let this discourse become normal.”

‘The real heroes’

Despite the difficulties facing Sudan, Schembri said he was inspired by the Sudanese people, whom he described as the “real heroes of this,” noting the NRC worked with local aid workers across the country. 

“When you see this happening across the entire country, that is clearly saying something about the character of the Sudanese, being so resilient, resourceful, courageous, [and] a lot of them are being killed and working against all odds.”

Stressing that while the situation was challenging, “none of us has any excuse to give up hope,” an eventuality he said would only condemn the Sudanese to further neglect. 

“Meeting these people is what keeps me going... and their voices keep haunting me,” Schembri said.

“Whenever I come back home from these places, I hear their voices.”  By James Cummings , Times of Malta