A high school building housing Kenyan teachers and 15 families began to shake as airstrikes and artillery shelled the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
The stranded group had begun to run out of food and water as fighting between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifiedbut no help could reach them, so a network of Sudanese civilians, organizing mainly through Twitter, sprang into action.
“We couldn’t get in touch with them and the Red Cross couldn’t get in touch with them,” Jia El Hassan, who heads the network and uses an alias due to security concerns, told Al Jazeera.
Finally, the network sent a group of men to check the perimeter of the building and help the trapped people flee on foot.
“They escaped on foot because we couldn’t send any cars, any car that entered that area was shelled,” El Hassan said.
The network, a reincarnation of a previous one, began on the first day of the conflict, April 15, by setting up vital updates on Twitter Spaces, the social media platform’s feature for live audio conversations.
Some of the people in Twitter Spaces weren’t new to grassroots organizing, but had led activist groups during the 2019 uprising that toppled former President Omar al-Bashir.
Many activists, El Hassan said, were killed during that uprising or forced to leave. Today, some 120 people remain on the ground in Khartoum, a fraction of the 4,000 who helped organize rescue teams in the past, he said.
Despite the large number of people who have left, in the last week the network has helped hundreds of people to get out of the capital or get vital supplies, from medicine to food and gasoline, and they are using Twitter to search for more. needy.
“A lot of the cases we get are like this: I’m stuck in this situation. I don’t have food, I don’t have water and my phone is about to die,” El Hassan explained.
That’s when his team combs through Twitter to find someone near the trapped person who can provide information on everything from how safe the area is to whether supermarkets are open.
If clashes are frequent, or if a person in need of emergency supplies cannot leave their residence for any reason, the network will arrange for a driver to drop off the supplies, and also arrange for the driver to receive gasoline if necessary, said.
People have also reached out to the network on Twitter to offer additional food or medical supplies to others in need.
El Hassan, who has experience advising companies and brands on how to use Twitter Spaces professionally, communicates with the network of civilians providing help on the ground primarily through Telegram, the most secure channel, according to her.
Sudanese abroad helping remotely
Some of those who help do so from abroad, such as Mohammed Hassan, a Sudanese doctor currently practicing at a government hospital in Saudi Arabia, who would soon have begun his residency in Sudan were it not for the conflict.
Hassan found out about the network through Twitter Spaces and has been helping solve medical queries for people in need as the health care situation in Sudan deteriorates further.
During live Twitter Spaces conversations early in the conflict, there were many people asking where to find things like medicine, food and areas with electricity, Hassan said.
“So we thought maybe we could create a group to link up and match people’s needs with resources we find online,” Hassan told Al Jazeera, adding that they have created a database of resources for people. collecting posts on Twitter and Facebook.
Hassan is one of many doctors who provide medical information online, sometimes connecting people with local doctors who can go to those in need and treat minor injuries.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors and the Sudanese Doctors Union have estimated that 70 percento 39 out of 59 hospitals, in Khartoum and neighboring states have had to halt operations since the conflict broke out.
crowdsourcing security
As fighting intensified, the network first provided information on safe corridors out of the capital, relying on civilian liaisons to provide security information.
But as the situation became more volatile and many people died, the network stopped posting escape routes.
“We would tell people this is a safe passage and literally five minutes later they are shooting everyone down the street,” El Hassan said, adding that people were shot while using some of the passages posted on Twitter.
But people still use the social networking site to search for escape routes, said Amin Alsamani, who is not connected to El Hassan’s network.
“Anyone who wants to leave Khartoum (can ask) about safe roads and travel stations that (are operating), and can find someone on Twitter who goes to the same area,” Alsamani told Al Jazeera.
Alsamani, who lives in Omdurman, Khartoum’s northern twin city, created a series of hashtags beginning with “needy” on the social media site to find those in need and provide them with food, water and whatever else is needed. Hashtags have taken off and are now widely used.
Guys Zain balance transfer? #Hawja _ Khartoum
-Ghassan Malik (@ghassan_malik) April 23, 2023
Translation: Guys, can anyone help with the transfer of Zein credits (mobile phone)? #Needed_Khartoum
“A hashtag has been activated on Twitter regarding the needs of (each) region,” he said, adding that the hashtags for each area are helping connect people with resources including medicine, food, water, gasoline, housing and even missing loved ones.
“If you don’t die from a bullet or an explosion, you die of hunger and thirst,” Alsamani said, about the importance of helping people.
While these civilian networks have helped many since the conflict broke out, those involved say they will not be able to support themselves and need humanitarian organizations to step in.
Power outages have been ongoing since the start of hostilities, knocking out internet connectivity and hampering network operations.
El Hassan added that the civilians he works with do not have the infrastructure or supplies that large humanitarian organizations have and are risking everything to help.
“I just wish those organizations on the ground would just start working,” he pressed. “It’s a matter of life and death.”
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