Sudan: Pregnant women embark on harrowing journeys to flee El-Fasher violence

Nadra Mohamed Ahmed was seven months pregnant when she fled violence in her hometown of El-Fasher in Sudan. 

After a nearly 40 kilometres walk across unsafe roads with her two children, she found safe transportation to a shelter across the country. 

“By the time I arrived here, I had lost a lot of blood," said Ahmed from her tent at the overcrowded displacement camp in the town of Al-Dabbah, in northern Sudan. "I was admitted to the ICU where I spent a few days and had a blood transfusion.”

Ahmed arrived in the camp two months before El-Fasher was seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been battling Sudan’s army for more than two years. 

Over 140 pregnant women arrived at Al-Dabbah camps since El-Fasher's fall last month, said Tasneem Al-Amin from the Sudan Doctors Network, a group of medical professionals tracking the war.

Many of these women arrive suffering severe complications, namely hemorrhage, which sometimes culminate in a miscarriage, she said.

Carrying her four-year-old daughter on her back and holding her six-year-old son’s hand, Ahmed made part of her 14-day-long journey on foot without her husband, who had gone missing shortly before her escape.

“I was very exhausted on the journey, I was carrying a child on my back and another in my womb,” Ahmed recalled. She said they had nothing to eat or drink.

Ahmed is one of many Sudanese pregnant women who struggle to complete their terms and give birth to healthy babies, in a country where 80% of medical facilities have collapsed in war-torn regions, according to United Nations agencies.

Last week, Anna Mutavati, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa told reporters that Sudanese women are forced to give birth on the streets.

"Thank God, there is healthcare here now,” said Ahmed, who is expecting her third child in less than a week.

Ahmed ran from El-Fasher shortly after an RSF projectile hit her house and killed her sister.

“We could hardly collect my sister’s remains. It was a harrowing experience,” she remembered, saying it prompted her to leave.

Those fleeing el-Fasher to safer areas are exposed to beatings, searched, and robbed on the way by armed men, Ahmed said.

Sami Aswad, UN population fund humanitarian coordinator in Darfur and North Sudan, said it is difficult to determine the exact number of pregnant women fleeing from El-Fasher, given the fluidity of the situation.

However, the fund has estimated that more than 2,300 pregnant women must have left the city since 27 October.