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[Editor's note] All the past is prologue.
Today's world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. And everyone in it has their own story. These stories seem to be isolated, but they are footnotes to each other, outlining the changes in the world with the joys, sorrows, and sorrows of mortals.
A Sudanese teenager who fled to a foreign country to escape civil strife and war, a Palestinian septuagenarian who hopes for peace even though he knows that there is no hope, a flight attendant of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway whose dreams come true, a stall owner in the Spanish market who looks forward to the economic recovery, a person in charge of a Mexican migrant shelter who has seen the world, an American lawyer who is obsessed with Chinese martial arts and is committed to people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States, and the director of the Moscow Zoo who welcomes the birth of a giant panda cub...... They have something to say about their 2023.
It is not the rolling waves that create the new land, but the tiny sand beneath it.
JUBA, South Sudan, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- In a shack in the Gorom refugee camp, 25 kilometers west of South Sudan's capital, Muhammad Abdulrahman skillfully pulls out pieces of bread from an earthen oven made of mud and grass with a hook pole.
"I'm not here to work, it's the war that forced me to come here. Abdul Rahman, 17, was a 17-year-old student at Bruj Secondary School in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan's Northern Darfur state.
Muhammad Abdurrahman makes bread at a bakery in the Gorom refugee camp near Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Dennis Alam)
On April 15, 2023, armed clashes broke out between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital Khartoum and other places, and the fighting then spread across the country, causing a large number of casualties. When the fighting reached El Fasher, Abdelrahman had no idea what was happening, but felt that the situation was becoming increasingly insecure. His brother urged him to flee.
As soon as the fighting broke out, Abdulrahman was separated from his parents and two older brothers. He later learned that one of his older brothers had been shot dead by armed men outside his home.
Abdulrahman headed east, first fleeing to Obaiid, the capital of North Kordofan. But when I got there, all my clothes were snatched away. He then fled to the central city of Kusti, crossed the White Nile, wandered to Rabak, and set out for the Choda border crossing on the border between Sudan and South Sudan. "I just want to go to a safe place, away from the fighting. ”
Pictured here is the Gorom refugee camp in Juba, South Sudan, December 7, 2023. (Photo by Dennis Alam)
He was penniless by then. A kind-hearted driver, hearing about his experience, agreed to give him a ride, helped him through the border and took him to Juba. "I hadn't heard of this place before. Abdul Rahman said he was later sent to the Gorom refugee camp by the South Sudanese government.
For the first month, Abdurrahman slept in the open air due to a lack of tents and prefabricated houses. "It rained heavily, and I was drenched in rain for almost a month. Later, a refugee who ran a bakery hired him, and things got better. He said that he worked in the bakery just to fill his stomach, and the store was in charge of eating.
Now, Abdul Rahman has opened his own bakery and employs two people. "The bread is produced here just to keep people alive," he said, "but the people here are optimistic, but they face all kinds of difficulties, especially lack of food, not enough to eat, and no money to buy." ”
Sudanese refugees fleeing civil conflict fetch water in Gorom refugee camp on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Dennis Alam)
Like Abdelrahman, Adib Amin Adam is one of the few of the more than 7,000 Sudanese refugees in the Gorom camp who have found work. When the conflict broke out, Adamu fled the city of Omdurman, across the river from Khartoum, where he had a house, a car and a shop, but the fighting cost him a lot of property.
With the help of relatives, Adamu opened a commissary with the little money he had, earning about 11,000 South Sudanese pounds (US$10) a day. Even so, it was difficult to fill a family of six. "If the fighting in Sudan stops, I want to go back immediately. ”
Under the mediation of Saudi Arabia and other countries, the two sides of the conflict in Sudan have reached several short ceasefire agreements, but they have not been effectively implemented. More than 7 million people in Sudan have fled their homes as a result of the conflict, the International Organization for Migration said on December 19, including more than 1.5 million to neighbouring countries. According to the latest figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 400,000 people have fled to South Sudan.
Aisha Bara Adamu (center) with other Sudanese women fleeing civil conflict in the Gorom refugee camp on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Dennis Alam)
Aisha Bara Adamu fled here from Khartoum with her daughter. People are starving, unable to get adequate medical assistance and not even have water to drink, she said. Some families are not accustomed to living conditions in the camps, and adults die in their homes, leaving their children behind. "People are suffering from all kinds of diseases, some are suffering from cancer, some are suffering from asthma. These diseases are difficult to treat in our current living conditions. ”
Dute Akule Kuole, Commissioner for Refugee Protection and Welfare at the South Sudan Refugee Council, said that the Gorom refugee camp is not only hosting Sudanese refugees, but also refugees from Ethiopia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The camp was designed to accommodate 3,000 people, but more than 10,000 people were actually accommodated, and Sudanese refugees continue to arrive.
As 2023 draws to a close, Abdelrahman and others share the hope that peace will come as soon as possible so that they can return home. However, there is no indication that the parties to the conflict are sufficiently willing to cease the fire. On 19 December, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced control of Wad Maidani, the capital of Gezira State. This central city, which serves as an aid centre and refuge for Sudanese internally displaced persons, has seen as many as 300,000 people flee since it changed hands.
"This war has brought us nothing but grief and pain," Aisha said, "and as long as the conflict is over, we can go back to Sudan and live better than before." (Reporter: Li Zhuoqun, Li Cheng; Editor: Liu Jiang; Editor: Hu Ruoyu, Jiang Guopeng, Chen Dan)