The fertile Jebel Marra region, where food rots due to conflict

There is one place in Sudan where it is almost possible to forget that a devastating civil war is raging.

Wrapped in bright colors and wearing plastic sandals, women from the Jebel Marra mountains set out every morning on donkeys, accompanied by children, to tend the fields.

In a Mediterranean-style climate and using fertile soil, they grow peanuts, oranges, apples and strawberries – rare crops for a country now facing one of the world’s worst food crises. Before the conflict, organic oranges from Jebel Marra were particularly appreciated throughout the country for their juiciness.

The mountainous area of ​​this part of the western Darfur region is dotted with lush green peaks, especially during the rainy season.

The rest of Sudan is on the brink of disaster.

Across the country, following two and a half years of fighting that has paralyzed agriculture, nearly 25 million people, or half the population, face severe food shortages, with more than 600,000 suffering from famine, according to the UN.

But in the lush Jebel Marra highlands, the problem is not growing food, but getting it there.

“We sell them almost for free and sometimes get rid of them along the way [to market]Because they rot,” said Hafiz Ali, an orange seller in the town of Golo, located in the middle of the mountains of Central Darfur state.

Insecurity and poor road conditions make transport almost impossible.

Jebel Marra is the last territory controlled by the Sudan Liberation Army-Abdulwahid (SLA-AW). This armed group has remained neutral in the current war. He has never signed a peace agreement with the Khartoum authorities since 2003 and the Darfur conflict at that time.

The SLA-AW has controlled what residents describe as “liberated areas” for more than two decades.

Today, surrounded by war on all sides, the region is increasingly isolated.

To the west and north, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias blocked main roads. In the south, RSF positions are bombed almost every week by the Sudanese army; these attacks also cause civilian casualties.

The RSF also controls areas to the east.

The result is a closed environment in which farmers and middlemen can no longer access domestic markets in the towns of El-Fasher, 130 km (82 miles) away, or Tine, on the Chad border, 275 km (170 miles) away.

There are other alternatives, but none have the same national reach and all involve perilous journeys.

Tawila, just on the edge of SLA-AW territory, has become the site of a makeshift market. It is located on the road to El Fasher, cut off from RSF headquarters, and where tens of thousands of people who managed to flee this city live.

Due to the difficulty in transporting products further, there is an oversupply in the market and as a result, prices have fallen here.

There are some here looking to purchase supplies in an attempt to smuggle products into El-Fasher – an extremely dangerous and potentially deadly trade.

Getting goods here has always been a challenge and food can sometimes rot along the way.

“To travel about 12 km, it takes a whole day of driving through mountains and mud,” explains Yousif, a fruit seller in Tawila. But today, he says, insecurity makes the situation even worse.

In Central Darfur, a recent truce between leaders of the Fur ethnic group – dominant here – and Arab nomads has allowed limited trade in some areas.

Markets have reopened in the SLA-AW-controlled town of Nertiti, where Arab women sell curds and Four farmers bring fruits and vegetables. But the arrangement is fragile.

“The market only opens once a week. Travel remains dangerous,” explains a trader from Nertiti.

“Armed robberies still occur on the roads, even after the agreement.”

Fruits and crops can now also be sold in the RSF-controlled Zalingei market, the capital of Central Darfur state. But Arab militias allied with the RSF are frequently accused of harassing or attacking civilians in the region, even though the groups deny any wrongdoing.

Every Thursday, market day, the number of checkpoints between Nertiti and Zalingei increases, sometimes reaching more than two dozen. But as more vehicles hit the roads on market days, more people are taking the opportunity to travel.

The checkpoints, some manned by RSF fighters and others by Arab militias, are sometimes monitored by a single armed man in civilian clothes, who demands a fee. Drivers then often try to negotiate while passengers watch silently.

Back in the Jebel Marra area, SLA-AW checkpoints guard all roads leading to the mountains and armed men also demand money.

Bags containing contraband are searched, and even those of skin bleaching creams, widely used elsewhere in Sudan, are confiscated.

Once inside the area controlled by the SLA-AW, despite the relative peace, clear signs of conflict appear elsewhere in the country.

Trucks full of people fleeing the fighting, particularly around El Fasher, are visible daily.

Many of them find shelter in schools, clinics and other public spaces receiving little or no humanitarian aid – aid agencies struggle to get through all the checkpoints.

In Golo, the de facto capital of SLA-AW territory, a woman who had escaped from El-Fasher described dire conditions. She is now housed in a classroom with 25 other newly arrived families.

“We have no income. No work to do, I worked as a nurse and I can farm, but the land here belongs to people who only work for themselves. We don’t know what to do,” the woman said.

As she spoke, old and sick people lay on the ground and children cried out from hunger. There will be at least some relief since the food that couldn’t be removed from Golo will be available.

This is the region of Jebel Marra, a strange world surrounded by war. A world of green mountains and waterfalls. A world of bright, juicy fruits. A world of frightened evacuees.

A fruit trader said he had lost hope on both warring sides.

“We are not part of the war, we just want to sell our oranges.”