‘It is really heartbreaking’: Iowa City’s Sudanese community calls for end to violence in Sudan

IOWA CITY — Mohamed Emam has been able to talk with his family in Sudan as conflict escalates, but it has been “very difficult.” When the internet is down, he can’t reach them at all.

Eman, an engineer who’s lived in Iowa City for 24 years, said his parents, brothers, sisters and other family members still live in Sudan.

⧉ Related article: A powerhouse Iowa City doctor slain in Sudan, ‘killed for nothing’

“The people, citizens, they have nothing to do with that war,” said Eman, who is president of the local organization Sudanese American Community Services. “They're just dying, losing their money, losing their homes and their loved ones. And we are affected.”

Eman and other members of the local Sudanese immigrant community organized a demonstration Saturday afternoon in downtown Iowa City to draw awareness to the crisis. More than 50 people showed up on the Pentacrest to silently protest the war.

Khalda Mohieldin, of Coralville, said the Sudanese community in Iowa is “very much affected” by the conflict in Sudan. Mohieldin is also a member of Sudanese American Community Services and helped organize Saturday’s event.

“We just want to rally the government to force these two warlords to stop the war,” Emam said. “They are doing that work for their own agenda. That agenda does not help the people of Sudan.”

Tensions had been brewing for weeks in the northeast African country between two rival generals who two years ago jointly carried out a military coup and derailed a transition to democracy. Fighting erupted earlier this month between the two generals “into an unprecedented battle for control of the resource-rich nation of more than 46 million people,” the Associated Press reported.

Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. Millions of citizens are trapped in urban areas, sheltering from gunfire and explosions.

“This war actually started with no warning,” Mohieldin said. “Nobody was ready. … People were very terrified to just hearing planes, bombarding and shelling randomly.”

Mohieldin, who has lived in Iowa since 1998, said she has siblings in Sudan who have fled and are seeking safety. Mohieldin also said getting in touch with family has been a challenge.

“This is not just my family,” Mohieldin said. “Thousands, maybe millions, of people now are fleeing their houses, getting either outside of the country or going to other (areas) that are much safer.”

‘It is really heartbreaking’

The Center for Worker Justice in Iowa City “stands in solidarity” with Sudanese community members, executive director Mazahir Salih said in an email ahead of Saturday’s event.

Salih, who served on the Iowa City Council from 2017 to 2021, was the first Sudanese American elected to public office in the United States.

“It is really heartbreaking,” Salih told The Gazette about the war.

Salih has been getting little sleep these last couple of weeks, which she said has likely been the situation for others with family back in Sudan. A first-generation immigrant, Salih said much of her immediate family is in Sudan, including her mother, brother, sisters and other family members.

Communication with her mother and family has been “in and out.” When Salih was talking with her brother on one occasion, the call cut out.

Salih’s mother, who lives in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum, has not had water for two weeks and she has run out of her medication. Salih’s mother is a U.S. citizen and was planning to visit in May.

Salih is worried about her mother, who is blind. She would need someone to travel with her if she were to try to leave the country. Salih has been in contact with Project Dynamo, a Florida-based nonprofit that’s helping Americans stranded in Sudan.

The hope is the group will be able to help get Salih’s mother and a companion out of Sudan.

Sudanese American doctor with Iowa City ties among those killed

Mercy Iowa City confirmed a doctor affiliated with the hospital was killed in Khartoum earlier this week. Dr. Bushra Sulieman was reportedly stabbed to death outside his home while escorting his father to a dialysis appointment, NPR reported.

Sulieman lived in Sudan but traveled to Iowa City several times a year since February 2021 to practice at the Gastroenterology Clinic and perform surgery at the Mercy Iowa City Hospital.

“Dr. Sulieman was a well-respected gastroenterologist, surgeon and colleague and he will be greatly missed,” said Tom Clancy, Mercy Iowa City President and CEO. “We extend our deepest condolences to his family and will keep them in our prayers.”

‘Life has literally stopped’

Many people in Sudan are stranded and can’t get out of the country, Emam said. Millions are without access to water, electricity or communication services.

“They are subject to dying from either a bullet or from hunger because life has literally stopped there,” Emam said. “There is nothing open, there is nothing there. So we are trying to get support from the government, from the senators, from civil rights organizations, from whoever can help us stop that war.”

Emam, who visited his family last year, said some families recently traveled to Sudan to visit, and now they can’t get out of the country because of the war.

Jacy Bunnell Ahmed of Cedar Rapids has been waiting for her husband, Mohamed Ahmed, to fly home from Sudan after attending his father’s funeral in mid-April.

Mohamed Ahmed is out of Sudan after completing a bus trip from his parents’ home near Khartoum to the Egyptian border. Egypt gave Ahmed a visitor’s visa, and he now plans to travel to Cairo and fly home, Jacy Bunnell Ahmed told The Gazette earlier this week.

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