BEIRUT  –  Sudan’s army is pushing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to retreat from Khartoum, sparking hope among many in the capital for renewed stability. However, local relief workers said they fear they will be targeted in a wave of reprisals. “Every time the army recaptures an area, … they start to target civilians and the humanitarian volunteers. This is why we are all so frightened,” said Ahmed, a local relief volunteer in Sharq el-Nile, an area in Khartoum that the army is threatening to recapture.

Local volunteers like Ahmed are members of Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), grassroots networks that have led the humanitarian response since Sudan erupted into war in April 2023. ERRs provide multiple services, such as supporting soup kitchens, safe spaces for women and children, and basic healthcare for the sick and wounded. Most rely on donations from the Sudanese diaspora and funding from international NGOs and United Nations agencies. Despite their vital humanitarian role, ERR workers face arrests, kidnappings and extrajudicial killings from both sides in the conflict. Many have been targeted for their pro-democracy stances, which threatened the joint rule of the then-allied RSF and army after a popular uprising brought down their former boss President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

Four years later, the RSF and army turned their guns against each other after they cooperated to overthrow a civilian administration and sabotage popular aspirations for democracy. The war between the two sides has killed tens of thousands of people and generated the largest humanitarian crisis in the world by most measures. On top of that, at least 112 ERR members have been killed since the start of the war, according to an ERR spokesperson. The actual toll could be higher amid fears that reporting attacks could bring violent retaliation. As the army advances in Khartoum, many ERR members fear for their lives and are calling for protection.

“We have been thinking about how we get some kind of protection [for ERR members], and we need the international community to push and advocate for us,” said Mokhtar Atif, the spokesperson for ERR volunteers in Khartoum North. According to volunteers, analysts and international aid workers, the army often treats any person carrying out humanitarian activities in RSF areas as a traitor. “Many volunteers are refusing to evacuate [from Khartoum] because there are badly needed UN [aid] convoys that should be coming in the next few days [and the ERR members need to distribute the aid to hungry civilians],” said Hajooj Kuka, spokesperson for the Khartoum ERRs coordination committee. “Many of these volunteers have made peace with the fact that they will be killed [by the army] and some have already sent messages [to us and their friends] saying their goodbyes,” he told Al Jazeera. (Al Jazeera/AP)