The War in Sudan: Death and Injuries from Stray Bullets

He wept bitterly, trying to hold back the tears as he recounted the harrowing details of an incident he experienced during the war that erupted in Sudan in mid-April 2023.

Osman Awad Al-Karim, a young man in his mid-thirties, was hit by a stray bullet during clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the Kalakla area, south of the capital Khartoum, in February 2024.

Osman narrates how he was struck by a bullet from a Kalashnikov rifle during the skirmish, which lodged in his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Speaking to Sudanese Echoes from Omdurman, where he now resides, Osman recounted the fateful day. He had set out early in the morning at 8:00 AM to fetch medicine for his six-year-old daughter, who was suffering from severe chest inflammation. As he approached the pharmacy, gunfire erupted. Attempting to take cover in a nearby building, he was hit by a stray bullet in the lower back as he tried to cross the street. He collapsed unconscious on the spot.

Moments later, when the gunfire ceased, bystanders rushed Osman to Kalakla Health Center. According to Osman, after the bleeding was controlled, a doctor ordered urgent tests and surgery to remove the bullet, which had settled in the spinal cord in his lower back. The injury eventually caused permanent paralysis, leaving Osman wheelchair-bound.

He described the ordeal of relocating his family from Kalakla to Omdurman in March to seek treatment at Al-Nu Hospital. The journey took two days via Jebel Aulia, with the first leg of the trip made on wooden boats along the Nile.

“After undergoing two surgeries, I now suffer from permanent paralysis,” Osman said. “This has left me feeling that life is meaningless, as I am now suspended between the sky and the earth, unable to provide even the most basic needs for my family, who currently reside in a school in the Hatana area.”

As for his medical journey, Osman mentioned that doctors advised him to seek treatment abroad, but the costs exceed $60,000. Additionally, the chances of success for a third surgery remain uncertain.

“I, and many others, consider ourselves victims of this cursed war that threatens to consume everything in its path,” he lamented.

According to a recent report by the Sudanese Observatory, a local institution monitoring casualties of the war, nearly 2,000 Sudanese citizens across the country’s 18 states have lost their lives due to being caught in crossfire during clashes between the army and RSF forces. The highest death toll has been recorded in the five states of Darfur and central Sudan.

Cyrus Bay, who works with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Darfur, painted a grim picture of the violence. Speaking from South Hospital in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, he noted that most of the injured are civilians hit by stray bullets, many of whom are children.

Bay added that the hospital has treated patients with bullet wounds, shrapnel injuries, and fractures caused by gunfire. Many of these injuries require blood transfusions.

Since the outbreak of the fighting, Bay said, the hospital has had to repurpose its facilities to accommodate the influx of wounded.

“The situation is catastrophic,” Bay said, adding that many patients are being treated on the floor in hallways due to the lack of beds to accommodate the overwhelming number of injured.