'There is no home anymore' says brave refugee in Sheffield fighting to make sure her people aren't forgotten
While issues surrounding the growing international refugee crisis regularly make headlines, little is spoken about the horrific crimes continually being inflicted upon the people of Sudan - and one refugee in Sheffield is determined to make sure they don’t get forgotten.
Hagir Adam has watched as the place she called home was torn apart by outside aggressors who senselessly robbed, threatened, and in some of the most despicable situations, raped innocent civilians.
And just over two years ago, following the break-out of a civil war, she was forced to make the heart breaking decision to leave her country and flee to the UK.
“At first the conflict in Sudan was Sudanese people fighting each other,” she told The Star.
“But then other countries got involved - some were with the military, others with separatists, and this is what inflames the war more.
“You could be in the safety of your own home and find people coming from outside Sudan stealing from you you, taking your home, raping the ladies - stripping you of your humanity.
“They are not even the people of the country.
“You are forced to be a refugee with no money, no means, even though before in your own country you were settled, you were all right and everything was fine.
“With every single family in Sudan you will find that they have their own disaster, their own problem that happens to them because of this war.
“Even if they are here in the UK they are in agony of what is happening there, because they think that if any day they go back home to visit they will find many of their family gone, their friends, even neighbourhoods - everything as they know it is gone.
“For people who want to go back home, there is no home - the houses are destroyed, the neighbourhoods are ruined and everything is disastrous.”
Sudan is one of the largest, and yet poorest nations in Africa.
In 2022, before the war even began, people were living on an average annual income of £600.
The war has already claimed 150,000 lives, with around 12 million people forced from their homes.
In the western region of Dafur, there is evidence of an ongoing genocide, with residents claiming they have been targeted based solely on their ethnicity.
Yet despite these ongoing horrors, 43-year-old Hagir has found that few people in the UK know what her people are living through.
She added: “For many people here in the UK maybe Sudan is something that’s unknown for them.
“They know nothing about it, or maybe they don’t even know it exists.
“I would love for the international community to know what’s really happening there and for these communities and strong countries to come and try to help with even part of the problems our people are facing back home.”
She is a member of a group set up in Sheffield by the Refugee Council, where women take part in craft sessions together to practice their skills, make friends and try to create a new supportive community.
“I would love somebody here or an organisation to sit with these Sudanese ladies and know what their families are suffering there,” she said.
“To sit with them and know all the horrors that are happening and try to help the people back home.”
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