Remaz Escapes Hell of War and Decides to Get Married

Atbara – Rehab Abdullah

Only a week after the outbreak of war in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, on April 15, the young woman, Remaz Salah El-Din, could not bear to stay in their house and decided with her family to escape from the scourge of war after a shell fell on part of their house.
*Escape scenario*
Remaz Salah El-Din, who lives in Al-Hilla Al-Jadeeda (Essejana) and is now displaced in a shelter center in Atbara, River Nile State, northern Sudan. Her family consists of five members (a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, and her own person). She began telling the story of her displacement to escape the hell of war in Khartoum, and she said… after She let out a deep sigh and her tears flowed abundantly, “We came to Atbara on the second day of Eid Al-Fitr, that is, a week after the outbreak of the war.
Remaz described the trip out of Khartoum as “a great risk,” but she admitted that they were forced after the clashes increased after a number of “explosives” – a type of weapon – fell on part of their house and the area and a number of their neighbors, friends, and others were killed. She continues, “During the trip, the bodies were lying on the road in a very painful sight, their noses rejecting the smell of rotting corpses, and crying and wailing rose in tone from inside the vehicle they were using, in addition to calls to have mercy on the dead, to improve the situation in the near future, and to end the damned war.
Remaz tells the story, during the training course organized by the Sudanese Women Journalists Organization under the title “Creating Professional Journalistic Content to Reflect Women’s Issues with Displacement” in the city of Atbara,
She recounts that her family and all the passengers in the vehicle were subjected to forced stops on the roads, inspections, questions, and provocations by members of the RSF “Outposts” checkpoints. However, she pointed out that the harassment affected men more than women, and she adds, “We saw very strong clashes before leaving Khartoum, after heavy gunfire and the sounds of many weapons being used, which terrified us even more, in addition to the sight of burned and destroyed houses, shops, and vehicles.”
*Tragedy on the road*
Suddenly, Remaz stops talking, and I see in her eyes pain and sadness that I did not understand at first, then she suddenly turns around and says, “The worst thing we experienced on our trip: there was a woman, in her thirties, who was very sick and carrying a newborn baby girl. It seemed that she was also sick, but this child died on the road during the trip, which took longer than is customary, due to taking long routes and frequent stops. Remaz expressed her sadness in that the child’s mother did not accept the idea of the death of her infant, which we later learned was her first child, whom she gave birth to three years after her marriage, and the mother refused to bury her on the road, and insisted on carrying her with her, but her husband, who was accompanying her, and all the members of the vehicle, convinced her to bury her because it was not known when they would reach their safe destination, and she agreed to bury her while she was helpless after she uttered screams that shook the entire vehicle.
Remaz says that they were able to reach Atbara after 24 hours on the road after a very arduous journey – according to her description – and they went to live in the house of their uncle (their mother’s brother) in Atbara, River Nile State, after which they were forced to go to live in “Al-Bawqa” in the west of the River Nile State, for two months. Then they returned again to Atbara. She continues, “After Eid Al-Adha, we came back to Atbara in early June, to live in this school after my mother failed to find rent at a suitable price.”
*Humanitarian aid arrives*
However, Remaz confirmed that support was constantly arriving to them from organizations, in the form of food supplies, which she considered a reason for them not facing difficulty in living, but she added, “The situation is certainly not like our life in Khartoum,” and added, “We are provided with sugar, lentil, flour, and oil,” and she complained about the lack of the availability of milk and the difficulty of obtaining it due to lack of money and being forced to drink tea without it.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced at the end of last November that humanitarian organizations in Sudan need $2.6 billion to support 18.1 million people in need of aid until the end of the year.
The United Nations revealed that it had received only $858.9 million, which is equivalent to 33.5 percent of the required humanitarian response.
*First day in the shelter*
Remaz explains the course of their first day in the shelter, and says, “Of course, there were no beds, and we slept on the floor on our robes after buying one floor mat. We continued in this situation until my sister was stung by a scorpion. We took her to the accident hospital and she was injected with scorpion serum. After that, my mother decided to buy a bed for 30 thousand pounds, equivalent to about $30, which my sister and I shared. Then, after a while, she bought another bed.
She pointed out that the source of their income is part of the money that her father, who works in health insurance in Khartoum, was saving in addition to his salary, as he has so far received three months’ salary since last April, and the full salary has not been disbursed, only 150 thousand pounds, or about 150 dollars, and she added, “My mother also has her mother’s pension is paid at the beginning of each month, which is 18 thousand pounds, or $18. She pointed out that the amount available from that is spent on providing bread and fuel (charcoal) for cooking food. She continued that we were later able to buy an electric stove “heater” and buy a little number of utensils “cups, plates, and a bowl,” and we completed the number of beds at five.
*Girls dream*
However, Remaz, like other girls of her generation, still dreams of entering the “golden cage” and marrying her lover – as she said shyly -. Of course, she does not want to wait for the war to end, as she says, “The war is unknown when it will end, and time is wasting.” Remaz says, “My problem that is troubling me, my marriage was contracted before the war, and now my husband and I have decided to complete our marriage in this home, even though the financial conditions are not good. Therefore, she appealed to organizations or philanthropists to help her provide a meal for the displaced people inside the center and her husband’s family and acquaintances to complete her marriage, while confirming that they decided not to perform a concert out of grief for those who lost their lives in the war and destruction that engulfed the entire country. However, she added, “But now I am optimistic about the good and have begun all the ceremonies that precede marriage, including “body smoking with acacia” – as she described it – indicating that in accomplishing this task she uses the help of the wife of the teacher at the shelter home to provide a “hole” for this, because she is ashamed to do that in front of her father and brother in the room – as she said -.
She denied any violence against her as a woman inside the shelter home, but described sharing her bed with her sister after each of them had been living in one room, as a tragedy.
She praised the charitable people’s support in providing some aid, especially since they came with only the clothes they were wearing, and expressed her hope that the war would end and they would return to their homes.