Isam

Life had become meaningless.

These are grim words, especially if uttered by someone in his early twenties. Yet they are real and explain with precision what so many young people go trough in war-torn Sudan. 

Isam* was rescued on the 5th of March 2026 on a rubber boat in the Libyan Search and Rescue Region after the Ocean Viking received an alert from Alarm Phone.  

The 36 people onboard had spent two days and night at sea and were drifting after their engine failed. Crew on the Bridge lookout saw the small light in the dark thanks to a survivor waving his phone light.  

Isam had fled his home in Darfur several months prior to being rescued by the crew of the Ocean Viking.

Citizens need help. They don’t have food, there’s no healthcare, no security. That’s why people are suffering a lot. Because of the RSF (the paramilitary UAE-backed group Rapid Support Forces), we had to leave our village. Even at night, they come to your house, they take what you have.

It was the violence by the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur that led him to leave. The women of his community were subjected to sexual violence, and the men are enrolled by force or tortured: 

The families who have girls, they (the RSF) take them. Your daughter, or your wife, your aunt, they take them. They rape them. That’s why the people try to leave the country to go to other countries, whether in Africa or in Europe.

 As for the men,  we are targeted, always. Maybe they (the RSF soldiers) are going to deal with you in a bad way, maybe they tell you to be with them…
They brainwash the children. At the age of 11, 12, you are going to be in arms. They become soldiers and they don’t understand anything anymore».

People in Darfur, have always been neglected by the government for not being Arabs but part of other ethnic groups with other languages and cultures.

He explains they have always been marginalised and his region has known many wars and famines.  

He also laments that the people who belong to his ethnic group, the Fur, are asking for their fundamental rights to be respected, but their voices aren’t heard.
Different tribes in Darfur are losing their customs and languages as a result of being prohibited to express them.