The documentary “Khartoum” humanizes the Sudan crisis – DW – 10/30/2025

More than 30 million people in Sudan – 66 percent of the population – currently need humanitarian assistance. More than 12 million have been forcibly displaced since the Sudanese civil war broke out in April 2023 between the country’s army and a powerful paramilitary group.

Almost 4 million children under 5 years of age suffer from acute and severe malnutrition. Women and girls are particularly exposed to sexual and gender-based violence.

“In my experience, it is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” Samy Guessabi, Sudan director of the NGO Action Against Hunger, told DW. Guessabi attended the “Khartoum Calling” event, organized earlier this month by the Berlin Human Rights Film Festival, to raise awareness about the Sudanese conflict and its humanitarian repercussions.

Niddal Salah-Eldin, a Khartoum-born media executive, also emphasized how the war is endangering the future of an entire young generation. “More than 15 million children in Sudan are out of school,” he noted during the event, adding that, by comparison, Germany has 14 million children in total.

A vibrant city devastated by war

Behind the figures, there are countless personal stories. The award-winning documentary “Khartoum” takes a people-centered approach, portraying five residents of the country’s capital: two young bottle collectors, a tea seller, a public official and a volunteer with the Resistance Committees, the popular pro-democracy movement that helped topple former dictator Omar al Bashir in April 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMytTsr2psM

Production on the film began in 2022. It was initially conceived as a cinematic poem dedicated to the diversity of Khartoum, captured on the streets by four emerging Sudanese filmmakers: Anas Saeed, Rawia Al Hag, Brahim Snoopy and Timeea M. Ahmed, in collaboration with British director Phil Cox. “But that’s when the war broke out,” Brahim Snoopy told DW.

On April 15, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (FAR), a paramilitary group, attacked Sudanese Armed Forces bases throughout Sudan, including Khartoum and its airport. “The directors, the participants… they were all scattered throughout Sudan and Khartoum,” says the documentary’s co-director.

Snoopy managed to flee to Kenya. Nairobi then became the base from which the five protagonists met to complete the documentary, which was to chronicle the brutal devastation caused by the conflict.

However, it was too dangerous to film the participants’ escape from Sudan. Instead, they were asked to recreate their personal experiences of the war in front of a green screen, to which animations and archival footage were added.

This creative approach allowed the protagonists to transcend the painful events and also reveal their dreams and hopes. Additionally, the film celebrates Sudan’s vibrant music and culture.

Pro-democracy groups, targets of both factions

As Sudanese-British journalist Yousra Elbagir pointed out during the film’s screening in Berlin, the conflict in Sudan must be understood as a counter-revolutionary war.

Before Al Bashir was overthrown by the Army in April 2019, Sudanese citizens had been protesting in the streets for months, demanding the departure of the ruler who had remained in power for 30 years.

In the ensuing struggle for power, the two warring factions have attempted to consolidate their influence. Now, despite their divergent tactics and motivations, both the Sudanese army and the RSF share an interest in suppressing pro-democracy movements that challenge their authority.

“This is the dilemma people find themselves in now,” Elbagir said. “We are at a crucial moment in our history,” he says. And he hopes that those who died during the Sudanese revolution fighting for democracy did not die in vain, that their aspirations for freedom and majority rule will soon be fulfilled.

An “actively ignored” war

With the wars in Ukraine and Gaza commanding global attention, the unprecedented crisis in Sudan is rather “actively ignored” than a “forgotten war,” said Niddal Salah-Eldin. Meanwhile, he assured, various powers benefit from the current instability of Sudan, which has large reserves of gold and other valuable natural resources. And he added that the conflict is “a war against the Sudanese people,” noting that hunger is used as a weapon of war.

The day after the screening, the event’s Sudanese experts met with German politicians in the Bundestag to explore concrete measures. In a petition to the Bundestag, the NGO Action Against Hunger urged parliamentarians to provide sufficient funds for humanitarian aid and to directly support local aid networks.

“More humanitarian diplomacy and political pressure on conflict parties is needed to open humanitarian corridors, facilitate access to aid and protect its distribution,” says Jan Sebastian Friedrich-Rust, executive director of Action Against Hunger and founder of the Berlin Human Rights Film Festival.

The German government and the EU “must use their foreign policy influence to advocate for safe humanitarian access, a ceasefire, the application of international humanitarian law and a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” adds Friedrich-Rust.

For his part, filmmaker Brahim Snoopy emphasizes that everyone can help persuade policymakers to take immediate action in Sudan, on social media or by talking about the crisis with their friends. “Even mentioning the word Sudan in your daily conversations is important, because that’s how every campaign starts, with small steps.”

(rml/ms)