It has been an entire year since the war in Sudan began. Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo shared her moving thoughts on the war on her Instagram.

April 15 marked the anniversary of the ongoing war in Sudan. The civil war began between the two rival factions of the military government of Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on April 15, 2023. According to the UN, the year of war in Sudan has left in its wake “15,000 dead, eight million civilians on the run, 25 million in dire need of assistance,” and more.

In her Instagram post, Elhillo shared snippets from her blog post where she reflected on the one-year anniversary of the war in Sudan. She writes that readers should reorient their attention toward the atrocities in Sudan instead of forgetting:

i have nothing new to say. just here to mark one year of war in sudan, to move it up your timeline, to hope you will remember, make a donation, keep your eyes and attention on sudan, refuse the language of forgetting. one year and nothing is normal, nothing makes sense. it is too easy to despair, but there is too much to do. don’t forget, please. recommit your attention, please.

See the full post below:

Safia Elhillo has written the poetry collections The January Children and Home Is Not a Country, along with the co-edited anthology Halal If You Hear Me. Her poetry has received many awards including the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, the Arab American Book Award, and the Brunel International African Poetry Prize. She was listed in Forbes Africa’s “30 under 30” Creatives in 2018.

We are keeping the people of Sudan in our thoughts throughout this time. Here is a booklist to read in solidarity with the people of Sudan. To donate, check out Elhillo’s recommendations below along with her blog post.