内容摘要：Earlier this year, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham,

Earlier this year, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham,

Shortly afterward Mohamed’s house was hit by a shell, another struck as he was trying to get wounded neighbours to hospital. Five people were killed and 19 injured - Mohamed still has pieces of shrapnel in his body, while his brother lost an eye.Two weeks later Mohamed watched his mother and three brothers depart for the safety of Chad, the neighbouring country to the west. He stayed behind to continue working to support them, he says.

But as the RSF fighters continued to close in, civilians were trapped in a war zone of indiscriminate shelling and army airstrikes, with food supplies cut off.“I couldn’t move, I couldn’t work,” he says. “All you do now in el-Fasher is just stay in your home and wait for death… some residents had to dig trenches in their homes.”It was dangerous to stay, but also dangerous to flee. In the end he decided to head for South Sudan and eventually on to Uganda.

He thought this journey would be safer for him than trying to join his family in Chad, and would allow him to work once he got to his destination.From el-Fasher to South Sudan, Mohamed passed through 22 checkpoints, five manned by the army and 17 by the RSF.

He was searched and sometimes interrogated, but managed to conceal his identity as a cameraman who had documented the war. Except for once.

The first stop, on 10 June, was Zamzam refugee camp on the outskirts of el-Fasher.The Saudis, meanwhile, did not want to see the UAE deciding who would run Sudan's next government.

Representatives from the two Arab states sat as observers in the Geneva talks. But until the top-level Arab decision-makers meet, that is just a diplomatic courtesy.In the meantime, the fighting continues and the hunger deepens.

Sudanese are still hoping that, unlike previous civil wars that lasted years if not decades, this one can be brought to a swift and peaceful conclusion.But the signs are not hopeful.