It was 36 degrees and very humid. Travelling on foot in these conditions is a real challenge, yet that is exactly what millions of people are doing right across Sudan.
They are not travelling through choice but through necessity, having been forced to flee their homes because of the vicious civil war that has torn the country apart since March 2023.
I have worked in the humanitarian sector for nearly 20 years and yet I am finding it difficult to comprehend the scale of this crisis.
Fourteen million people, around 30% of the inhabitants of Sudan, have been forced to flee – that’s more than twice the population of the entire island of Ireland.
This has been recognised as the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today.
Many are on the move with nothing – no food, no water and no possessions. More than 25 million people do not have enough food to eat.
Millions of women and children are at particular risk in this situation from malnutrition and from violence.
The people of Sudan feel as though the world has forgotten them as headlines are dominated by other humanitarian crises.
I was in the Nuba Mountains region in the south of Sudan. Nearly one million internally displaced people (IDPs) are here and the authorities are finding it hard to cope.
This region was already reeling from acutely high levels of poverty, and the extra strain on resources has brought the system to breaking point.
Juma Edris Kuku is the regional director of the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA), working on the humanitarian situation on behalf of the authorities.
“The humanitarian crisis here is so bad for several reasons.
“Firstly, the conflict has resulted in so many people fleeing to the region because of the fighting elsewhere in the country.
“Secondly, the last harvest was very bad because of a lack of rain and a plague of locusts. This has meant there has been no surplus or safety net for people here, who have shared what they have with the newcomers, and that has exacerbated the situation.
“Half of the million IDPs in this region are children and many of them are being accommodated in 15 IDP camps. We are seeing a worrying increase in levels of malnutrition in the camps, particularly in women and children.
“It isn’t the fighting that will kill people here but a lack of food.”
Dr Tom Cartina is the director of the Mother of Mercy Hospital, the only major hospital in the region. He has worked in Sudan for more than 16 years.
“We are seeing a lot of malnutrition cases here in mothers and children. It is causing a particular problem in newborns whose mothers have not had enough food,” he said.
“Babies are being born very prematurely and this is a huge risk to them in this situation.
“Trócaire has provided us with essential support in the form of highly nutritious food supplements for the babies which has no doubt saved lives.”
Another challenge facing Trócaire and our partner organisations is access. There is only one humanitarian corridor into the Nuba but during the rainy season this road is almost completely impassable.
The road had only been open again since the start of November and it took us 10 hours to travel the 150 miles.
Some airdrops of aid were made when the road was closed. Unfortunately, people in the Nuba Mountains still remember when planes dropped bombs and not food and so many fled in terror when they heard the aircraft.
The airdrops had to stop as the airspace became too dangerous because of the conflict. This meant that just a trickle of the necessary aid got through over a period of several months.
I visited several camps where those who have fled have ended up and I heard first-hand of the awful journeys people had to make to get there.
One mother, Madina, whose husband and one of her sons were killed, was forced to walk for six days with her seven remaining children to reach Thobo IDP camp. They had no food and had to eat leaves and grasses to stay alive.
When they first reached the camp, her youngest son Muriambi was extremely malnourished. He was treated in the nearby Trócaire clinic.
“The nutrition programme helped my child to survive but he has other complications,” Madina said.
When I met the little boy, I would have guessed he was around three years of age. He is nine. Severe malnutrition over a prolonged period of time had stunted his growth.
However, the Trócaire staff told me his health has vastly improved since he first arrived.
Unfortunately, there are so many women with experiences similar to Madina’s in the Nuba Mountains.
Elizabeth Philip Kori is the Head of Clinic at Trócaire’s Amdulu Health Centre. I met her at the perimeter of the centre where the walls were riddled with bullet holes – a reminder if one was needed of the root of the challenges facing people.
“We were originally helping 12,000 people but this number has doubled since the opening of the camp nearby. There is a shortage of food, clean water and medical care. Malnutrition is a major problem, particularly for women and children.
“We are saving lives here but when we aren’t able to save someone it makes me so sad and angry that I just sit and cry.”
I saw the incredible work being done by Trócaire and our local partners working in these camps and the surrounding areas providing food and medical assistance to the people there. This support gives them a fighting chance to survive and rebuild their lives.
The work Trócaire is supporting is having a positive impact but the resources are being totally outstripped by the huge level of need.
With no end to the fighting in sight, donations to continue funding support for the people of the Nuba Mountains is as crucial now as it ever was.
:: For more information on Trócaire’s work in Sudan or to donate to its appeal visit trocaire.org.