Members of Connecticut’s Sudanese community are reeling in the wake of the ongoing civil war in Sudan. The intense fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the militia group, Rapid Support Forces, has sparked a massive humanitarian crisis.
Windsor resident Ahmed Zeinalabdin says the experience of witnessing the war from abroad was surreal.
“In the beginning, it didn't feel real, because I was there in 2022. Everyone was happy. We were celebrating Eid,” said Zeinalabdin, 21, a rising senior at the University of Connecticut. “I know that the streets that I knew before are all bombed. A lot of the structures that I recognized are probably in the ground. The airport is destroyed. There are probably dead bodies in a lot of the main congested areas.”
More than 30 of Zeinalabdin’s family members have fled their homes in Sudan since the start of the war to seek asylum in Egypt. His remaining relatives in Sudan have faced violence at the hands of the RSF.
“The RSF actually took over my street in the neighborhood that my grandparents lived in and they broke into the house,” Zeinalabdin said. “They stole two cars from my family. They even stole my grandmother's phone.”
Zeinalabdin lost contact with his grandmother for a month after her phone was stolen.
“My dad was on edge for that entire month, because he didn't know,” he said. ”They really could be dead and we wouldn’t have known.”
Zeinalabdin recalled a particularly emotional phone call with his grandmother in which he found out how severely his relatives were affected by food scarcity, only having fruit and lentils to eat.
“I couldn't help but cry because … these are my grandparents,” Zeinalabdin said. “And I thought, you know, they're living a normal, happy life before. And all of a sudden, now they're barely eating. They're all losing weight. They're bound to their house.”
Zeinalabdin’s family in Sudan are not only victims of food shortages, but also skyrocketing food prices.
“It's affected my family in America, who now have to go and financially support our family in Sudan,” Zeinalabdin said. “My father was telling me that to support those six between him and his siblings, it is costing around $2,000 a month and they're not paying rent, by the way. This is $2,000 a month of just buying food and water.”
The financial strain is a common burden among Sudanese American families, according to a Connecticut-based activist, Yasmin, who did not want her last name used for security reasons.
“I know a lot of people picked up extra shifts or extra work just to support their families,” Yasmin said. “Personally, my whole entire family works because we are supporting all of our family in Egypt right now.”
Yasmin runs a nonprofit called Amalforwomen, which helped Sudanese women launch their own small businesses before the war started.
“Because of the war … we paused that,” Yasmin said. “We started helping people either sending aid to Sudan or refugees outside of Sudan.”
Despite the scale of this crisis, which has displaced 8 million people and put 26 million people at risk of severe hunger, Sudan does not get the same amount of media attention or public support compared to other humanitarian crises.
“Either there's not enough coverage or the media painted it in their own: You know, another war happening in Africa so why should we care,” Yasmin said. “There’s definitely bias in the media in reporting on Sudan.”
Even within the Muslim community, which includes most Sudanese Americans, there hasn’t been the same support for Sudan compared to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“You have community meetings or Juma prayers [Friday services]. And if people would just mention that – if people would just talk about that during these events,” Yasmin said. “I wish more people in the Muslim community would talk about it.”
Members of the Sudanese community encourage Connecticut residents to support relief efforts, such as Sudanese non-profits, and to stay updated on the situation by searching on social media for the hashtag KeepEyesOnSudan. Yasmin also runs educational accounts on X and Instagram to inform the public about the crisis.
Zeinalabdin encouraged people to reach out to their Sudanese friends and coworkers.
“If you know anyone who’s Sudanese … just telling them: ‘Hey, I know what’s going on over there and I hope things are better’... that really goes a long way,” he said.
