Volunteer Kitchen Workers Targeted in Sudan’s Deadly Civil War

Community volunteers operating charity kitchens to feed displaced families in Sudan face deadly violence from paramilitary forces. Over 100 kitchen workers have been killed since fighting began in April 2023, with many more abducted or beaten while trying to provide food aid.

CAIRO (AP) — When Enas Arbab escaped Sudan’s Darfur region, she carried only her infant son and the painful memory of losing her father — a volunteer killed for his work at a community kitchen feeding war-displaced families.

Arbab’s father, Mohamed, was among the victims of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary organization that has battled Sudan’s military since April 2023. The RSF besieged el-Fasher in western Darfur, cutting off food supplies before capturing the city.

United Nations officials report that several thousand civilians died when the RSF seized el-Fasher last October. Of the city’s 260,000 inhabitants, only 40% successfully escaped the assault, with thousands suffering injuries. The whereabouts of remaining residents remains unclear.

According to Arbab, RSF soldiers removed her father from their residence after assaulting him before his family, then demanded payment for his release. When relatives couldn’t provide the ransom, the fighters claimed they had executed him. The family still doesn’t know his burial location.

After her husband vanished a month afterward, Enas Arbab chose to journey north toward Egypt. “We couldn’t stay in el-Fasher,” she explained. “It was no longer safe and there was no food or water.”

Her father represents one of over 100 community kitchen volunteers who have lost their lives since hostilities commenced, based on information from aid workers who contacted The Associated Press and the Aid Workers Security database, an organization monitoring global incidents affecting humanitarian personnel.

In regions experiencing heavy combat — particularly throughout Darfur — hunger is expanding while food and essential items become increasingly rare. These community-operated public kitchens serve as crucial survival resources, yet many volunteers face kidnapping, theft, detention, physical violence or death.

Salah Semsaya, a volunteer with the Emergency Response Rooms — an organization that started as a grassroots effort and now functions across 13 provinces in Sudan with 26,000 volunteers — recognizes the hazards confronting charity kitchen staff.

The actual count of murdered workers probably exceeds the estimated 100, he notes, as ongoing warfare has hindered dependable information gathering and documentation.

Semsaya provided documentation indicating that 57% of confirmed charity kitchen worker deaths happened in Khartoum, primarily during RSF occupation of Sudan’s capital before military forces reclaimed it last March. Darfur accounted for at least 21% of the fatalities.

Over 50 Khartoum victims worked alongside his organization, Semsaya reported.

Sudan’s conflict began when disputes between military and RSF forces intensified into combat that originated in Khartoum before expanding countrywide, causing thousands of deaths and creating widespread displacement, disease outbreaks and critical food shortages. Humanitarian workers frequently became targets.

Dan Teng’o, communications director for the U.N. humanitarian affairs office, explains it remains uncertain whether charity kitchen volunteers are attacked due to their humanitarian activities or suspected connections to either warring faction.

These kitchen volunteers maintain high community visibility through their service, making them easy targets, according to activists. Ransom requests usually span $2,000 to $5,000, often increasing after families make partial payments.

“A clear deterioration in the security context … has significantly affected local communities, including volunteers supporting community kitchens,” Teng’o stated.

Farouk Abkar, a 60-year-old el-Fasher resident, distributed grain bags at a charity kitchen in Zamzam camp, located 15 kilometers south of the city, for one year. He endured drone attacks and recalls when RSF fighters assaulted his kitchen. One soldier struck his face, dislodging several teeth.

Abkar said he escaped el-Fasher during nighttime with his daughter, traveling on foot for 10 days. During their journey, RSF fighters shot birdshot that struck his head, causing persistent headaches.

Currently residing in Egypt, he shares living space with at least 10 other Sudanese refugees and cannot afford medical treatment. Disturbing memories from his hometown continue to trouble him.

“Many things happened in el-Fasher,” he recalled. “There was death. There was starvation.”

Mustafa Khater, a 28-year-old charity kitchen volunteer, departed with his expecting wife to Egypt just days before el-Fasher fell to RSF control.

Throughout the 18-month blockade, some el-Fasher residents cooperated with the RSF by identifying kitchen workers to paramilitary forces, Khater explained. Many subsequently disappeared.

“They would take you to an area where there is a dry riverbed and kill you there,” Khater described.

A volunteer working with Semsaya’s humanitarian organization in Darfur reported that some colleagues faced beatings, arrests and interrogation, with attackers claiming they received “illicit funds” for kitchen operations. This volunteer requested anonymity due to retaliation concerns.

Despite these obstacles, numerous charity kitchens remain the sole dependable food source in conflict areas and provide locations where people can gather for mutual support, Semsaya noted.

The community of Khazan Jedid in East Darfur province operates three charity kitchens that feed approximately 5,000 individuals daily, according to Haroun Abdelrahman, spokesperson for the local Emergency Response Rooms branch.

Abdelrahman reports experiencing interrogation by RSF fighters while several colleagues have suffered knife-point robberies. Despite fear and intimidation, many kitchen workers continue volunteering and serving, he said.

In Kassala, located in eastern Sudan, military officials questioned a local branch volunteer and his associates in January 2024 after their kitchen began providing meals and shelter to people who fled nearby Wad Madani when RSF captured that community. He also requested anonymity for safety reasons.

Khater, the 28-year-old who left el-Fasher, learned from hometown contacts that following RSF occupation, all charity kitchens in the city shut down and his former colleagues were either “killed or fled.”

Teng’o explains these closures in combat zones have left “vulnerable households with no viable alternatives” and forced residents to purchase from local “markets where food prices are unaffordable.”

Arbab, the 19-year-old expecting mother who fled with her infant son, hoped to restart her life in Egypt, according to friends and a humanitarian worker who spoke anonymously about the young woman.

However, while traveling to the northern city of Alexandria last month, Egyptian authorities stopped her and her child and deported them back to Sudan.