Running civilians trapped in the border city of Renk

When the devastating war in Sudan reached the Sarah Williams neighborhood in the capital Khartoum, she and her children were caught in the cross fire.

The bullets broke through their home, fires, swallowed buildings, and electrical lines caused explosions.

“We crawled on the ground,” she recalls, holding her one -year -old son closely. “It was chaos.”

Mrs. Williams, a 33-year-old mother of five, is from South Sudan.

She was forced to escape when the Civil War broke out in 2013, two years after she gained independence from Sudan to become the most nation in the world.

But after independence, Eforia soon became distracted when the struggle for power between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Rijek Mayar caused a civil war that took the lives of approximately 400,000 people and forced 2.5 million people to escape from their homes.

G -ja Williams was among them. After arriving at the calm Khartoum of the time, she restored her life by working as a middle -class family housekeeper.

But it was uprooted again after a fight exploded in the city in 2023 between the forces loyal to the military ruler Abdel Fatah Al Burhan and his then Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.

“The conflict started with each other,” says G -Ja Williams. “But later, they began to kill South Sudan, although we were not part of their battle.”

In the last two years, the conflict in Sudan has taken more than 150,000 lives, forcing over 12 million people from its homes and turning large parts of Hardum into ruins.

When her home fell under attack, she packed her several things and headed back to South Sudan.

However, the conflict has already been resumed there, with the UN warning (UN) that the 2018 peace agreement between Kiir and Machar is at risk of collapse.

G -Jia Williams' journey has been ended in Renk so far. Once a quiet border town, it has become a transit center, rising with refugees from both Sudan and its neighbor to the south.

Renader for about five months, Da -ja Williams wants to return to his hometown of Nasir, in the state of the Upper Nile.

However, it is dangerous to travel to Nasir – a strategically important port city along the Sobat River – since it has become a war zone.

“There is a conflict in front of us,” she tells the BBC, holding her four -year -old daughter as she gently shakes her one -year -old son.

Her voice is stable, but her eyes are heavy – they carry the weight of war, loss and uncertainty.

Government troops and the White Army – a militia connected to the Machar during the Civil War – have repeatedly encountered in nasse, with reports of heavy firing, ambushes and displacement of residents.

D -Ja Williams has not heard from her family in the city.

“I don't know where they ran when the clashes began … or even if they were alive,” she says quietly.

The enemies in southern Sudan have left thousands of people like G -Ja Williams, stuck in the Renk Transit Center. The camp is overcrowded, having more than 9,000 people – three times the bigger than the number for which it was intended.

Refugees receive a small amount of money from food buying agencies, but it only lasts two weeks and is then expected to take care of themselves.

Sarah says,

“I used to collect firewood and sell it to buy flour, but there is nothing left in the forest. No wood that women can collect and sell,” says G -ja Williams, a reminder of the environmental degradation that warns.

Corrugated shelters in the camp are pressed to 15 people per room. Others build fragile homes of sticks, fabric and torn sacks. Overcrowding is the nourishment of diseases, hunger and despair.

Help agencies are struggling to move families to more favorable parts of South Sudan, where people have “stronger municipal or family ties, opportunities for livelihood and better access to services,” says Viajaya Suri of the International Migration Organization (IOM).

Hundreds are waiting in a burning sun to get on metal boats tied to malacal. The trip takes two and a half days along the Nile River. Passengers sit on their luggage or boat floor.

Among them is Mary Day, which escapes from Woda Madani, and Furious battlefield in the Sudanese conflictS

“This child was only a day when we crossed the border,” she says. “We're 16 years old. We had no money – but we had God.”

She is squeezing a package of documents – her family ticket from Renk.

Medical services are stretched to their borders. Joda Border Clinic – built of iron sheets – is the only functioning health center in the area.

“More than 600 babies have been born here since the beginning of the war,” says a healthcare worker. “But now we can only work during the day, there is no night shift funding.”

The cholera epidemic was announced in Renk last October. It spread to the biggest part of South Sudan, including the capital Juba, causing more than 450 deathsS

Tatek Wondimu Mamecha, an employee of the World Health Organization (WHO) in South Sudan, warns of increasing risks.

“Although the cholera epidemic is controlled, we are not out of the forest. Currently, malaria is spiked and will strive with the coming rainy season,” he told the BBC.

D -n tatek adds that the pulsation effects of Global abbreviations of US President Donald Trump Administration are detrimental.

“Five of our partners either stopped the service or reduced operations by 50%.”

Hospitals such as the renon referral have lost half of their employees, including surgeons, obstetrician -pianos, putting enormous tension to other medics.

“The facility manages about 350 to 400 patients a day,” says G -N Tatek.

The Renk refugee crisis puts a sharp focus on the fact that tens of thousands are trapped between two conflicts, with parts of South Sudan being no longer sure of people who are running away from the two -year conflict in Sudan.

Tensions have been escalated in South Sudan since March, when Machar was placed under house arrest after being accused by Cyir's allies for supporting armed groups, an claim that his party denies.

George Owino, the chairman of the Monitoring Monitoring Authority in 2018 to help his implementation, warned that the latest clashes “threaten the basis of the agreement.”

He tells the BBC that the main problem is that political leaders continue to command competitive troops without integrating them into a single national army.

“The connection between politics and military authorities is still intact,” says G -Nouino.

“When leaders disagree, it quickly becomes an armed confrontation – exactly what it had to prevent the agreement.”

The 2013 Civil War broke out after Kiir fired a vice-chairman, accusing him of thinking a coup while Machar made the counter-blanket that Kiir was a “dictator”.

The devastating civil war ended after the peace deal in 2018, which saw the Machar being re-appointed as Vice-President.

“There was more dialogue within the Presidency. This has decreased,” says G -n Owino.

Until now, the African Union (AU) has failed in its efforts to restore the peace process on the way while Uganda has deployed troops in South Sudan to strengthen the position of Kiir.

The Mahar's party says the deployment undermines south Sudan's sovereignty and the 2018 peace deal.

Both Uganda and the Kiir government defend the deployment, stating that this is in line with the long -standing security agreement between the two countries.

Nevertheless, the unfolding shows how fragile the grip of Kiir is on power, as the fear increases that the full -scale civil war can be resumed.

And across the border in Sudan, the Civil War continues to rage, with Gen Dagalo announced the formation of a rival government.

His move comes despite the fact that his powers have lost control of Harsum after heavy fighting. The city has already burned a shell, with bombarded and blackened buildings.

G -ja Williams says she has no intention of returning to Khartoum and has decided that she is best to try to restore her life in her homeland, “even if the situation is bad.”