A young life frozen by the Sudan war still harbors hope

What do you take when war knocks on your door?

For Nema Musa, the answer was obvious: Besides the clothes on her back, she took her pink-and-blue notebook, two student identification cards, and two receipts proving that she had paid her university tuition.

In July 2024, about 15 months after a devastating war broke out in their homeland, Sudan, Ms. Musa had to flee with her mother and two sisters. What they now call home is a transit center in Renk, a town in northern South Sudan some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border. The overcrowded center is a sea of makeshift shelters built from iron sheets and tarpaulins stamped “UNHCR” (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

Sudan is now in the throes of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 3.8 million people have left Sudan, and almost 8.9 million others have been displaced within the country. Meanwhile, peace is shaky in South Sudan. With the onset of spring, that country began worrying about a return to its own civil war.

Until the Sudan conflict erupted, Ms. Musa was an aspiring journalist studying at a university in Khartoum. Her sisters, still in high school, dreamed of becoming doctors. Their mother, Zakiya Bahit, laments that her daughters’ schooling has been frozen by war.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to give them a good education,” she says.

Ms. Musa breaks down in tears when asked what she misses most about Khartoum. “My father died there,” she says.

But between sobs, she insists on continuing the interview. She wants the world to know the horrors happening in her country.

For now, there are dreams living inside her notebook.

“I studied journalism because I wanted to help people,” Ms. Musa says. “If I can ever return to Sudan, I want to continue studying.”

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