The Heartbreaking Dilemma of a Sudanese Mother Amidst War

Tue Oct 21 2025 19:53:49 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

As Sudan endures a brutal civil conflict, one mother's story reveals the harrowing realities faced by families. With resources stretched thin, she was forced to make an impossible choice between saving her twin daughters.

In the midst of Sudan's ongoing civil war, families grapple with desperate conditions as hospitals overflow with malnourished children. Touma, a mother from Khartoum, faced an agonizing choice when she could only afford treatment for one of her twin daughters, highlighting the broader humanitarian crisis affecting millions in the region.

Warning: This piece contains details that some readers may find distressing.

Touma hasn't eaten in days. She sits silently, her eyes glassy as she stares aimlessly across the hospital ward.

In her arms, motionless and severely malnourished, lies her three-year-old daughter, Masajed.

Touma seems numb to the cries of the other young children around her. I wish she would cry, the 25-year-old mother tells us, looking at her daughter. She hasn't cried in days.\

Bashaer Hospital is one of the last functioning hospitals in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, devastated by the civil war which has been raging since April 2023. Many have travelled hours to get here for specialist care.

The malnutrition ward is filled with children who are too weak to fight disease, their mothers by their bedside, helpless.

Sudan is currently experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies. According to the UN, three million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished.

Masajed is a twin, she and her sister Manahil were brought to the hospital together. But the family could only afford antibiotics for one child. Touma had to make the impossible choice – she chose Manahil.

I just want them both to get better, Touma says, cradling her dying daughter. I have nothing. I have only God.\

Survival rates here are low. The war has taken everything from families like Touma's. As we leave, the doctor says none of the children in this ward will survive.

Across the whole of Khartoum, children's lives have been rewritten by the civil war. They have been robbed of their childhoods and suffer in a world where their futures are uncertain.

Amidst this turmoil, Zaher, a twelve-year-old boy, and his mother Habibah, illustrate the tragic impact of the conflict. Habibah recalls the day a drone strike injured Zaher, resulting in the amputation of his legs. I wish I could have prosthetic legs so I can play football with my friends like I used to, Zaher expresses as he struggles to adjust to life after the tragedy.

Not all are lost in despair—Zaher and his friends continue to attend school in a makeshift classroom where they cling to fleeting moments of joy amidst the chaos. They are the resilient children of Sudan, fighting to find hope and happiness even when surrounded by devastation.

A small glimpse of joy persists in devastated neighborhoods as Zaher plays football on a scarred pitch, asserting their right to childhood and a life worth living.