Abdallah’s Story

Abdullah grew up in a village in West Darfur, surrounded by the horrors of war.

Life was incredibly difficult for him and his whole community, and at the time they relied on the help given to them by aid organisations. As a kid, Abdullah would look at the people helping and admire them.  “Starting then, when I was very young,” he says, “I wanted to work for an organisation like that when I grew up.”

However, one day when he was in his late teens, Abdullah was on his father’s farm in West Darfur when the Janjaweed militia came and seized him. He was held captive with 15 other people, one of whom was killed; luckily Abdullah managed to escape, and made his way to the nearby city of Geneina. There he met people who were going to Libya, and left Sudan with them.

It was the start of a horrific three-year journey.