Sudan War: I recognized my Eritrean sister on a video of captured refugees

Mihret Gebru recently watched with concern two videos on her phone that were shared online showing people from the Horn of Africa being beaten and attacked by armed men in Sudan, then was horrified to see her sister among the prisoners.

“I was able to identify Luwam immediately. She is wearing the orange scarf that I know very well – and her shoes are partially visible,” she told the BBC.

The sisters come from Eritrea – and like many young people, Luwam Gebru fled the country’s indefinite military conscription, which she believes denies them any future.

She landed in neighboring Ethiopia in 2019, where she had refugee status. But being a refugee can be like living in limbo – and many choose to take dangerous journeys in search of a new life and new opportunities.

Ms Mihret said her 24-year-old brother decided to cross the war zone in Sudan to reach Libya last year, several months after the conflict began.

In April 2023, Sudan descended into chaos as former allies – the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – began fighting each other for control of the country.

Many foreigners were hastily evacuated – but some refugees already in the country and recently arrived migrants like Ms. Luwam were treated with suspicion and taken as prisoners of war.

“We haven’t heard her voice for almost a month,” says Mihret.

“She once called us from Sudan and said, ‘Don’t worry, I arrived safely in Sudan and we could reach Libya this week.'”

Her younger sister sounded confident that the human traffickers to whom she had entrusted her life would not abandon her.

But nothing was heard from her for five months – until the videos appeared on social media in April.

BBC Verify’s analysis of the footage suggests it was uploaded on April 7 and 8.

A Sudanese army general describes the approximately 50 prisoners on board a truck as “mercenaries from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia”.

They were apparently captured while fleeing heavy fighting around the Al-Jaily oil refinery north of the capital Khartoum. The refinery is controlled by the RSF and is used as a base in the region.

In one of the videos, an army officer explains that the prisoners are being taken to the army’s Wadi Seidna military base, which is also located north of the capital.

There are unconfirmed reports that the RSF uses foreign fighters, which may explain the hostility of army officers toward the group.

Still images of the group, including several with Ms. Luwam in her orange scarf, show them crammed into a room in a warehouse.

Ms Mihret, who was also able to identify one of her neighbours from Eritrea in the group, said they had not been able to obtain further information.

“We don’t know much, we were told they were in the care of the Sudanese authorities.”

Other Eritreans told the BBC that they had relatives registered as refugees in Sudan, but that they had disappeared and were reportedly being held by the Sudanese military.

Two of them left Eritrea together last year and arrived at a UN-run refugee camp in Kassala state in eastern Sudan in October.

Their families said 17-year-old Yonatan Tesfaslassie and 20-year-old Edmon Kidane were then approached by smugglers.

Such traffickers, some of whom are believed to be members of the RSF, often target young new arrivals and promise them a safe route out of Sudan in return for money.

On the way, they put pressure on the refugees to demand more money from relatives abroad and then abandon them along the way.

In the case of Mr Yonatan and Mr Edmon, South Sudan was the destination when they were apparently abandoned and separated by smugglers.

Apparently they had both made it to Wad Madani in Gezira state, a town about 190 kilometers south of Khartoum that had been a safe haven for many since the war began.

That was the last time Mr Yonatan’s family heard from him – when he said he was heading to South Sudan with other migrants.

His sister Winta Tesfaslassie later learned from those who made it safely across the border that he may have been among the many migrants arrested at the time in the army-held town of Rabek, just further south.

Some of them, they said, were taken to the nearby town of Sinjah and others possibly to the town of Sennar to be held by the army.

“The whole family is so worried and we have no idea what to do. We feel helpless. We want to know if he is safe. He is too young to go through such an ordeal and he has nothing to do with the war in Sudan,” Ms Winta, who lives in Britain, told the BBC.

Mr Edmon’s family also last heard from him when he was in Wad Madani – although it appears that he was arrested there several weeks before being handed over to the RSF.

“A smuggler told us he was being held by the Sudanese army,” his sister Adiam Kidane, who lives in Angola, told the BBC.

The smuggler was her only source of information, “but later he stopped answering our calls,” she said.

“We couldn’t tell our mother for a long time, but eventually we had to. She fainted when she heard that we didn’t know anything about him. We are all desperate. We keep thinking about what could have happened to him.”

According to some reports, more than 200 migrants of various nationalities were held at a military facility in Wad Madani before the RSF advance – information that the BBC cannot independently confirm.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the prisoners were transferred along with the army as it withdrew from Wad Madani.

The UN refugee agency says it has received similar reports of the army detaining asylum seekers and refugees. According to the UN, more than 147,000 Eritreans and around 70,000 Ethiopians live in the country.

The organisation told the BBC it was planning a verification mission to Sennar state, which includes the towns of Sinjah and Rabek. Relatives of refugees who believe they are in detention are urged to report the information via the UNHCR Sudan response page.

“Helping families who have lost contact with their loved ones to locate them is one of our top priorities, but our ability to do so depends on our access and the volatile security situation,” the ICRC told the BBC.

The Sudanese embassy in London did not respond to a BBC request for comment on the detention of foreign nationals.

Despite international efforts to end the fighting, in which more than 15,000 people are believed to have been killed, the warring parties are unable to agree on a ceasefire.

The three sisters who spoke to the BBC about their missing siblings say it is an incredibly frustrating process to get any information, be it from the ICRC, the UN or the military.

“Please help us, the UN, anyone… we are desperate,” said Ms Winta.

“We appeal to the Sudanese authorities to please, please allow them to call us so that we can hear their voice.

“We beg the army to release them. These are innocent young people who left their country in the hope of reaching a safe destination in South Sudan.”