phosphorusParadoxically, Sudan is home to both the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and the most inspiring response. The northeast African country's government has ground to a halt, the first casualty of a feud between rival generals that has also devastated the economy, forced farmers from their land and put half of its 50 million people at risk of starvation . The same battle that devastated Sudan has made it so dangerous that international aid organizations cannot rush to help.

So people did it instead.

Across Sudan, ordinary citizens organized to feed their neighbors, shelter strangers, rescue the injured and aid children traumatized by what was happening around them. With more than 600 temporary community centers, called Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), now operational, this grassroots effort has become a central relief agency. To meet urgent needs, public enterprises are also accelerating a global movement that represents a shift in the way humanitarian aid is distributed, with the role of major agencies reduced and the prominence of local leadership groups re-emphasized.

“We are helping our people,” said Hanin Ahmed, an early ERR organizer. "To save them. Come bring food. Offer protection. We have women's response rooms, trauma treatment centers. We have kids in alternative education schools. We have a lot of stuff."

When the fighting happens, the mistakes begin. On April 15, 2023, a fierce rivalry between the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied militia leaders erupted into all-out war. As shells exploded in the capital, Khartoum, Ahmed and his classmates were the first to mobilize to evacuate their university. The next day, a triage center was set up to sort out which casualties should risk being sent to hospital. Next is a community kitchen, then counseling services for victims of sexual assault.

Similar organizing is taking place in other communities, in many cases led by people active in the grassroots movement that four years ago successfully overthrew the military junta that had ruled Sudan for decades. A technocratic transitional government was set up to guide the elections, but was forced out at gunpoint in a 2021 coup that has led to a regime that is now fighting a shockingly destructive war with itself . More than 11 million people have been forced from their homes.

Things are worse in Sudan Yet the more noble a self-appointed leader behaves, the more noble the people respond. In the country's southern border state of West Kordofan, Salah Almogardem has been working at the Ministry of Agriculture. His job disappeared with the war.

"Total paralysis," he said. “There were no government or medical facilities.” Now, Almogadm, 35, helps manage the local ERR, which feeds 177,000 people every day. He agreed with what other volunteers told him that the work inspires a person to "go forward and serve."

International aid organizations try to help. But familiar institutions, such as the United Nations and private groups, have found themselves marginalized by the fighting. Some are confined to refugee camps in neighboring countries such as Chad. With Khartoum still a war zone, many people are trapped in the central government-run Red Sea city of Port Sudan. The most manageable thing is to support ERR.

“We have an aid convoy now moving into an area of ​​Khartoum that has been there since April 2023,” Taylor Garrett, USAID’s Sudan response director, told TIME on December 20. Never arrived. ” 70 bugs plus 150 community kitchens. "

The plan rerouted normal distribution through a handful of large international groups. Garrett expressed slight discomfort with the number of ERRs involved ("more opportunities for things to go wrong"), but expressed admiration for what they were doing. "They are both very prolific and are really force multipliers. The rapid growth of this approach has allowed us to engage with affected communities more than we normally would... it just increases the reach," he added. A good thing. "The scale of the people who need help is hard to grasp. I mean, this is a huge crisis: by 2025, there will be more than 30 million people who need help."

The aid provided is not nearly enough. In late December, TIME spoke with four local ERR volunteers in Sudan via WhatsApp through Ahmed, who now lives in the U.S. province of North Darfur, and volunteer Mozdilfa Mozdilfa Esamaldin Abakr spoke at a camp for displaced persons.

"We have a famine," she said. "We are losing 20 children every day to hunger." She said most of the dead were between 2 and 3 years old. Local health centers lack life-saving supplies such as rehydration fluids. “They have a unit specifically focused on malnutrition,” Arbuckle said. "But they don't have enough because of the lack of security corridors and funding." The town of Fasher is bombarded daily by both sides - the regular army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia known as the Rapid Support Forces. name. Janjaweed It carried out genocide against non-Arab Sudanese people in the same region 20 years ago.

"The security situation is very bad," Arbuckle said.

where is this International attention can make a difference. The ERR model recognizes that even within traditional humanitarian aid structures led by the United Nations and large agencies such as CARE and Save the Children, local people do much of the critical work as employees or volunteers. They know what's happening on the ground and where it's needed most. In locally-led aid, much of the same basic work is done without the expense and hassle of outside managers who have to be flown, housed and paid.

This locally led model is sometimes referred to as decolonizing humanitarian aid, and has even been endorsed by some prominent aid agencies, which have begun to tout partnerships with grassroots NGOs. In Myanmar, the government views any aid entering conflict zones as support for the rebels, which can mean international organizations operate almost covertly to deliver life-saving supplies to local groups who can distribute them.

But locals are also always more vulnerable. For practical advice on staying safe, grassroots aid workers can draw on the expertise of the Netherlands-based International NGO Security Organization (INSO), which works in 22 countries in conflict and provides free training on security protocols and coordination . “Suppose an NGO is involved in an IED attack on a road in Jalalabad,” said INSO policy director Anthony Neal. "We want to make sure other NGOs are aware of this incident."

International outrage can play a vital role by deterring violence in the first place. Attacks on large aid agencies are likely to grab headlines and even make warring parties think twice about taking action, in part because their weapons suppliers are under intense pressure. (The UAE has been widely reported to be supporting the militia side of the conflict in Sudan, which it denies.) The goal, Niel said, is to "reaffirm the inviolability" of humanitarian workers, even if the worker is a volunteer and not staff. An employee of an international aid organization that can protect itself by lobbying governments and pitching to journalists.

Ahmed said that in Sudan, ERR staff in the field must keep a low profile and even stay away from social media. But outside groups can advocate for them, and she spends a lot of time at the United Nations and high-profile aid groups because “endorsement from them — more advocacy from their side — can provide more protection for our colleagues.”

This work defines the moral high ground claimed by aid organizations. “This is a true demonstration of this localized intent, a real localized effort that ultimately translates into real life-saving activity,” said John Prendergast, former Africa director at the U.S. National Security Council. “It’s the highest form of human expression.”

Drawing on Sudanese traditions sapphire, ERR, which roughly translates to "mobilize," cuts across the fault lines that fuel the country's conflict. “We transcend race, we transcend gender,” Ahmed said. "This service is provided to us."

For months, funding came only from Sudanese expatriates and locals themselves. “We paid out of our own pockets at that time,” said Almonzer Mohamed Abdelmonim Fadul, a biomedical engineer who later became a resident of Entu, which borders Khartoum. Mann's financial officer and kitchen supervisor. Once mutual aid groups became the most effective means of delivering aid, arrangements were made to accept donations from international agencies that would not risk sending their own staff to the field. ERR staff said they work with banks and "trusted merchants" to handle only food and other essential goods. (“Cash is dangerous,” one person said.)

Although much early Organizers are veterans of the Resistance Committees that led a peaceful, leaderless uprising in 2019, and officials insist there is no political component to the ERR system. "We work in a very professional and careful manner," Fadul said. "Because there is no politics, the warring parties won't pay attention."

However, their examples speak for themselves.

“These people have stepped in,” said Prendergast, who now heads Sentry, a public inquiry advocacy group documenting the links between human rights abuses and corruption, including his own since the 1980s. Sudan has been involved since. “There is no reciprocal relationship between the rulers and the ruled in Sudan. Therefore, the sense of responsibility is devolved to the community level.” Because “the state has 100% abdicated this responsibility,” providing a path for citizens to show who they can trust for public welfare .

“This is important preparation for basic governance,” he added. “Providing food, medicine and services to the poorest, most needy citizens becomes the most important thing. So you turn this kleptocracy upside down , you actually get back to the essence of governance.”

In many countries mired in war, the casualties include civil society. “Here,” said Garrett, the USAID official, “it became almost a symbol of resistance.” His boss, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, called the volunteers “ hero".

"The local response network is not only the cornerstone of the humanitarian response to the crisis, but also critical to the future of Sudan - setting the standard for the Sudanese people to be responsive, equitable, people-centred," Power said in a statement to TIME. governance model.” "

However, the present is still dark. Nearly a quarter of Sudan's population has been displaced or fled across the border to neighboring countries such as Chad and Egypt (some 3 million people). The richest countries failed to help. While terror in Gaza and Ukraine has drawn attention and donations, funding for Sudan is less than two-thirds of what is needed, a shortfall of more than $800 million, according to the latest United Nations data.

This is in stark contrast to the reaction of Sudanese citizens. "You get to the level as a volunteer that when you hear one of your guys calling, you run to see who's hurt," Fadul said. "You never think about yourself."

He works in Omdurman, a city across the Nile from Khartoum at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. From the beginning, this has been a battleground. The sound of machine guns rattled along the dark brown streets. Earlier last year, a bomb killed a man in charge of a communal kitchen.

One kitchen can serve 300 to 500 families. The evacuation center can accommodate up to 200 people. Omdurman Emergency Relief and Rescue (ERR) will expand its evacuation center as people flee fighting in the capital. "It's very hot in these areas," Fadul said, "so people are fleeing."

—Reporting by Leslie Dickstein