Family from Geneina, Sudan  

Photo Caption:

NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland meets a family from Geneina that was attacked by Arab militias. The father, Ahmed, 37, is now helping fellow refugees. The mother is called Mariam, 24, sons Abdulkadir, 6, Hussein, 5, and three-month-old baby Ibrahim born in Adré Settlement.

“I was two months old pregnant when armed men came and burst through our door, looking for my husband to kill him,” Mariam said. Her husband was away but when he returned home they were still there.

“I convinced them we were not Masalit”, Ahmed said, referring to their ethnic community that was under attack. “They were killing Masalit men, they just wanted to wipe us out, but we convinced them we were from another tribe and we managed to get away from there, crossing to Chad,” he said.

Mariam was studying public health in Sudan hoping to become a nurse.

“I’ve lost everything,” she said. “I wish I can continue my studies but we are cut off from everything here.”


*Names have been changed to protect their identities.