https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/14-years-in-limbo-a-journey-from-darfur-to-building-a-life-in-israel/ar-AA1yfg87?ocid
When Mahmoud Usman was 25 years old, the war in Sudan was already years under way. Situations had grown dire in his native Darfur, Sudan, so much that he uprooted his life and fled for fear of what was to come.
After navigating treacherous borders and enduring uncertainty, Usman reached Israel in search of safety. Fourteen years later, in 2024, his asylum application was tentatively approved, allowing him to remain in a country where he has built a new life.
By 2010, the conflict showed no signs of abating. Entire villages were destroyed, and millions of civilians were forced into refugee camps or exiled from their homeland. Usman, like many young men from Darfur, faced the harrowing reality of either conscription into militias or becoming a target of ethnic cleansing campaigns.
More than a decade after he fled his home, conflict raged on. In 2023, Sudan descended into chaos once again, as conflict erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a mercenary group with roots in the Janjaweed militias responsible for atrocities in Darfur. The violence in Khartoum and other regions has led to further displacement and devastation. Attacks by militia groups on civilians were ever increasing.
In 2010, Usman had been watching atrocities being committed in his community. There were frequent explosions and famine, and he knew that staying put could be fatal. At this point, he became a refugee, as had 700,000 others from Sudan since the early 2000s. Darfur had faced total devastation, and Usman knew that if he didn’t leave with the resources he had managed to provide for himself, his life could be cut short.
On his treacherous overland journey from Darfur to Israel, Usman headed north, through Egypt, his first stop in the asylum process that ultimately acted as a six-month layover on his way to Israel.
