Amid Sudan war, scores of families risk lives to keep each other alivec

Sameh Makki’s soup kitchen is barely 100 metres from the market, but it can take two hours to make the journey through Sudan’s war-torn streets, often through hails of bullets.
The 43-year-old, his family and local volunteers have risked everything to get supplies to feed around 150 families caught in the crossfire between the army and paramilitaries.

“The only thing that matters is that people eat. If I had died while making that happen, so be it,” said Makki.

Since the war began last April between the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, tens of thousands have died and millions more have been forced to flee their homes.

Initiatives like Makki’s are some of the only ways that people survive as the impoverished country hangs on the verge of famine.

Makki fled to Egypt to get medical care for his daughter and left the soup kitchen in the care of his mother and young volunteers from the neighbourhood.