Sudan war survivors scarred by missiles, amputations
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- Omer al-Toum, 33, lost part of his right leg and left arm in October when an unexploded weapon detonated in his home; the former soccer hopeful now coaches young players from a wheelchair.
- Noon Madani, 16, had her legs crushed by a missile that killed her 18-year-old sister nearly three years ago; after six months in hospital battling infections, she studies science and dreams of becoming a doctor.
- Zeinab, 8, lost her right eye when a February 2025 shell strike killed her father and two sisters, ages 10 and 12; her mother Fatma Ageb said the girl constantly calls out for them.
- Tariq Abuzeid, 52, lost his right leg in December 2023 shelling after distributing food in Khartoum; despite taking dozens of painkillers daily, he still runs soup kitchens from his home.
- A 50-year-old woman (unnamed by AP) was abducted with her two daughters by the RSF after fleeing Dilling in South Kordofan; she reported being gang-raped and beaten for months before escaping on foot through the desert — the UN has called sexual violence one of the war's "defining features."
- The Sudanese army retook Khartoum from the RSF last year, but fighting continues elsewhere; AP journalists spent more than a week in and around the capital gathering these accounts.
Why it matters: This feature puts faces and bodies to a war that has produced thousands of dead and millions of displaced yet draws almost no concurrent coverage from major outlets, as shown by the Other Sources list focusing entirely on Ukraine and drones. The accounts — a UN-cited "defining feature" of sexual violence, child survivors losing families to shelling, and amputees unable to access prosthetics — illustrate a civilian toll that aid infrastructure in Khartoum is visibly struggling to handle.
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