But as the shelling and bombing escalated, and supplies of essentials ran low, she was left with no choice.
"There's nothing there, no water to drink or food to eat," said the 31-yearold, who is married to a soldier in the regular army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and did not want to give her last name. "I will never return." Her escape through the city's western gate - the only one not controlled by the RSF was fraught with risk.
"Several times when I tried to board a lorry a shell landed nearby, and I ran away," said Aisha, from the relative safety of Tawila, a town controlled by a rebel group that has - for now-stayed neutral in Sudan's civil war. "I came back week after week to try again." Aid workers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have followed the same route in recent months, taking a road that follows a V-shape around the Zamzam refugee camp then runs west to Tawila and beyond.
Denne historien er fra October 04, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra October 04, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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The Saudi football World Cup is an act of violence and disdain
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AI has made the move into video and it's worryingly plausible
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With tyrant Assad ousted, Syrians deserve support and hope
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TV
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Albums
Murky love stories, nostalgic pop and an in-your-face masterpiece captured our critics' ears in 2024
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Visual language, sound, light and rhythm are to the fore in the best movies of the year
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From an exuberant mountaineer to a woman defiantly facing the guns of war, here are some of the brave individuals who gave us hope in a tumultuous 2024
Votes of confidence
From India to Venezuela and Senegal to the US, more people voted this year than ever before, with over 80 elections across the world. With rising authoritarianism and citizen-led resistance revealing its vulnerabilities and resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges, has democracy reached its breaking or turning point?
