Sudan Dream of AFCON Glory as Conflict Rages at Home
When war broke out in Sudan in April 2023, Ammar Taifour was in a training camp with his club Al Merrikh in Khartoum.
“I just remember the surprise, the shock of the first gunshots. It was very surprising,” the 28-year-old midfielder with the Sudan team at the Africa Cup of Nations tells AFP.
“Then in the days after that there were power cuts and constant gunshots. It was just unbelievable.
“I just pray for peace and for everyone who’s in this situation to be safe and make it out.”
Taifour, who was born in the United States, is among the lucky ones. He says he is “grateful and blessed” that family members in Sudan were able to leave the country.
Goalkeeper Mohamed Al Nour, meanwhile, had to deal with the anguish of his brother being taken prisoner by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
“Luckily I have not lost any members of my family but my brother was taken prisoner for nine months by the RSF before being released,” says Al Nour.
“We have experienced terror, people being killed. We just hope things improve.”
The war that erupted close to three years ago between the country’s army and its former allies the RSF has had a devastating impact on the population.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 11 million driven from their homes in what the UN has declared “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster”.
Despite that backdrop, Sudan’s national football team qualified for the ongoing AFCON in Morocco and on Sunday they beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 in Casablanca.
It was just their second win at the Cup of Nations in 18 matches across six tournament appearances since they lifted the trophy in 1970.
They play Burkina Faso in their final group game on Wednesday and do so with the pressure off because they are already assured of progressing to the last 16.
That is a remarkable achievement regardless of the current off-field context, given Sudan have only once made the knockout stages at an AFCON since 1970 — they reached the quarter-finals in 2012.
