Aid workers, women say they face brunt of violence in Sudan amid deadly conflict
Walking 25 miles surrounded by armed guards, Nadra Ahmed was seven months pregnant when she was beaten in the leg by a member of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan.
She is just one of more than 140 pregnant women at an aid camp in Northern Sudan, the Associated Press reported. Many women at the camp, fleeing from a war-torn region, are caught in the crosshairs of the two warring parties, the RSF and the Sudanese military.
Ahmed's story of survival represents many that have yet to be told.
Access to the region and information coming out has been largely cut off amid the war. And in October 2025, videos exposed gruesome mass killings by the RSF in Sudan’s Darfur Region.
The fight for the control of Sudan began in 2023 between the North African country's military and the RSF. Now surpassing 1,000 days of fighting, the RSF has control over Darfur, and the U.S. government says the RSF is committing genocide, accusing both warring parties of war crimes.
The civilians caught in the middle aren't the only ones in need of help.
Aid workers provided first-hand accounts to ABC News in partnership with Women for Women International. One aid worker reported that, to flee from violence, he had to leave his possessions and medical equipment behind.
Hiba, another 26-year-old aid worker at the Sudan Planning Family Association, works at a mobile clinic providing reproductive health and gender-based violence services.
Hiba, whose last name ABC News isn't using for safety reasons, told us she feels a calling but recognizes the lack of support.
"The needs in the camp are growing every day," she said. "We need to receive not just basic assistance but real opportunities to heal, grow, and rise again."
Her sentiments were echoed by Dr. Tom Catena, a medical director at Mother of Mercy Hospital and the only full-time doctor serving an entire population he estimated to be more than 3 million. The hospital, located in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, was in need of aid before the war began. He told ABC News it all comes down to funding.
"Without funding, you can't do anything. You can be the best doctor in the world and have the best staff," he said. "You're totally useless without funding. That's just how it is."
In December 2025, Catena sent ABC News a video diary describing attacks on the region.
"There was a drone strike here a couple weeks ago, there were about 40 fatalities," he said in the video. "We're standing by and waiting for whatever comes our way."
The strikes came as no surprise, since the hospital was also targeted a little over a decade ago, Catena told ABC News in 2025.
"This is how wars are. They target people," he said. "If you target a hospital, imagine the demoralizing effect that has on those people. You give up."
