‘They are struggling in every way’: The orphaned and disabled children forced to flee fighting in Sudan
The road to Kassala is infamously hard to traverse. It has seen little maintenance over the years and during these times of war, it is ungovernable.
Trenches cut across the tarmac from one stretch of mountainous desert to another. The hoods of SUVs disappear into them and send passengers flying out of their seats as the cars buck in and out of the ridges.
For the healthy traveller, the journey is a source of pain and discomfort. For those suffering from illness and living with disabilities, it can be lethal.
Sudan’s humanitarian crisis explained
This difficult trek was endured by hundreds of vulnerable disabled civilians and orphaned children searching for some semblance of safety in Sudan’s eastern state.
One infant orphan died on the road and another died soon after arrival, their small sick bodies battered by the 24-hour passage and the violent conditions of their departure point.
But many more died in the besieged cities they narrowly escaped.
The al Maygoma orphans have been forced to flee not once, but twice
When war broke out in Sudan’s capital Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), residents thought it would only last a few days.
The city emptied as weeks turned into months and civilians started dying from lack of food and water, on top of the ferocious armed violence.
In Khartoum’s well-known al Maygoma orphanage, 69 children died from illness resulting from the war-time conditions.
Like nearly half a million others, the orphans were evacuated almost four hours away to Wad Madani in a joint effort by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UNICEF and government authorities.
The country’s second-largest city became a growing humanitarian hub and treatment centre for the sick, elderly and disabled.
This classroom has been converted into a bedroom for babies and toddlers
But on 18 December, the RSF captured Wad Madani and testimonies of terror, looting and murder echoed out of the former safe haven.
The hundreds of orphans, alongside adults and children with disabilities, had no choice but to embark on the arduous journey to Kassala.
When we met them, there was a sense of unease. A severe lack of life-saving supplies and uncertainty over their long-term safety.
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The al Maygoma orphans are now settled in a primary school at the foot of Kassala’s bulbous Toteel mountain.
A lower ground classroom smells of old urine and sickness as underweight babies and toddlers roll around straw mats on the hard floor.
A round steel tray arrives with foil-covered plates and more than two dozen small children gather around.
No beds for children
“Five of them have died since evacuation. One died on the way and one on arrival. They were both in need of surgery and were declared dead in the hospital,” says Dr Abeer Abdullah Zakaria, a medical caretaker at the orphanage.
“Three more of them have died at the orphanage since. They suffered from cerebral palsy and contracted blood poisoning from their bed sores.”
Aside from a few flimsy donated mattresses, the young children have no beds to lie on.
This school in Kassala is now a shelter for displaced people with disabilities
Outside the classrooms, more children from the care homes of al Hasahisa, a town near Wad Madani, sleep under tents on the hard playground.
Their delayed and tumultuous evacuation was a source of great controversy.
Organised by committed local volunteers several days after the first group was extracted, it was held up at Kassala’s state border for another 24 hours.
Despite their living conditions, these children play loudly and joyfully – a sign of relief and gratitude for their safety after the effort to bring them here.
But across town in a shelter for displaced people with disabilities, there is a longing for home.
‘Struggling in every way’
The parents tell us that they designed their houses around their children’s needs. Now, they are huddled in classrooms with strangers.
“You cannot even imagine having a child with severe autism and living in a displacement shelter and lacking basic necessities. They can’t just eat anything or stay in any room. They are struggling in every way,” says Nemat Hassabu Ali.
She fled her house in Bahri, Khartoum, with her two sons. Both have been diagnosed with severe autism and the sound of airstrikes and shelling was overwhelming for them.
She was hesitant to evacuate immediately over concerns that few would accept and accommodate her children.
They ended up leaving after running out of food.
Corpses littered the ground around their home as they escaped, she says. Her youngest son, Motaz, still obsessively draws the corpses he saw that day.
In Wad Madani, where they sought safety for weeks before the RSF advance, and now here in Kassala, her children continue to suffer in a crowded shelter that is far from their purpose-built home.
“We just hope that the war ends and we can go back to our home,” says Nemat with teary eyes.
World
‘Now is our time’: Despite tariffs, China’s Silicon Valley is ready to make its mark on the world
The city of Hangzhou is one of the most historic and beautiful in China.
But this ancient place now has the most modern of reputations, as China’s ‘Silicon Valley’.
A vibrant hub for entrepreneurs and high-tech start-ups, Hangzhou is home to headline-grabbing success stories like Alibaba and breakthrough AI firm, DeepSeek.
In the context of escalating competition with America, the world is increasingly paying attention.
Those who are part of the tech scene here brim with enthusiasm.
Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province, has been labelled ‘China’s Silicon Valley’
Over coffee, in an ultra-modern city complex, they describe how exciting this moment feels, not just for their businesses, but for China too.
“We have the talents, we have the environment, and we have the full supply chain, even though we have a challenging environment,” says Grace Zheng, who has worked at the AI glasses creator Looktech since its inception.
“It’s our time.”
The others laugh and nod. “I agree with it,” says Jia Dou, whose company Wuli Coffee, creates high-tech, automated commercial coffee machines. “And I think it’s our time to show and battle with other foreign countries.”
Grace Zheng is enthusiastic about the future for China
And is that a battle China could now win, I ask? “Of course,” comes the answer.
They tell stories of how estate agents in Hangzhou dedicated hours of their time for free to find the perfect laboratory space, and how the local government showered them in grants and incentives; so hungry is this city for tech success.
These entrepreneurs in Hangzhou say the city supports a vibrant hub of tech start-ups
“Hangzhou says we’ll provide the sunshine and the water, you go ahead and grow,” explains Zhang Jie.
She is the convenor of this group. An entrepreneur herself and the founder of a thriving ‘incubator’ for start-ups, she has invested in and mentored all the others around the table.
She is passionate, energetic and has a second-to-none understanding of what makes Hangzhou and China’s tech scene so successful.
“In China, we have more than 10 million university and college students graduating. Then we’re talking about at least five to six million engineers with college education background,” she says.
“So with such a large group of young and intelligent people with a good environment, a favourable environment for entrepreneurship, I’m sure there will be even greater companies coming in the future.”
Zhang Jie helps start-ups in Hangzhou, where she says entrepreneurship is able to thrive
Indeed, a combination of light-touch local regulation, (unusual in China more broadly), coupled with one of the most business-oriented and free-thinking universities in the country, Zhejiang University, is viewed by many as the secret sauce in Hangzhou.
Zhang says she has had more young people approach her with business ideas in the last quarter than at any other time before, and she is full of optimism about the current wave.
“They are already companies [in China that will] probably be greater than Apple, right?” She laughs.
And she may well be right.
But there is one name in particular, born and bred in Hangzhou, that has captured the world’s attention in recent months.
When DeepSeek unveiled its latest open-source AI model earlier this year, it stunned the world, claiming to be as good as western competitors for a fraction of the price.
The Hangzhou HQ of DeepSeek, which has stunned the world with its recent AI advances
Many are now talking about the ‘DeepSeek moment’, a moment that turbocharged confidence within China and made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.
Indeed, successes like this are being lauded by China’s leaders. In February, tech bosses, including DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng, were invited to a symposium with Xi Jinping and his top team.
Photo ops and handshakes with the president, an abrupt change from the crackdown they faced just a few years ago. In fact, tech is now being positioned as a key pillar in China’s future economy, repeatedly highlighted in official communications.
But what is seen as inspiring innovation in China is viewed by the United States as a threat.
Donald Trump is moving to ramp up restrictions, including more export controls on chips being sold to China.
Read more from Sky News:
What is DeepSeek?
China raises tariffs on US
Businesses in Hangzhou are of course aware of the trade war unfolding around them, many who export to America will take a significant hit, but most think they can cope.
Dr Song Ning is one of them. He proudly shows us his factory, which is integrated with the lab work and R&D side of his business.
His company, Diagens, uses AI to massively speed up medical diagnostics, cutting the time taken to run a chromosomal screening from 30 days to 4. He is also working on a chatbot called WiseDiag which has more advanced medical understanding and can be used by patients.
This lab at the firm Diagens is using AI to speed up medical diagnostics
While they are actively seeking business in over 35 foreign countries, for now, the pursuit of American customers is on pause.
“Competition is a good thing… it makes us all stronger,” he says.
Dr Song Ning believes Donald Trump’s policies will not be able to impede innovation
“I do not think by limiting the scientific and technological progress of China or other countries, Trump will be able to achieve his goal, I think it is a false premise.
“Information is so developed now, each country has very smart people, it will only force us to have more tech innovation.”
While individuals remain defiant, the trade war will still leave a big hole in China’s economy. Tech firms, however advanced, can’t yet fill that gap.
But the innovation here is rapid, and there is no doubt, it will leave its mark on the world.
Mourners will be able to view the body of Pope Francis lying in state in St Peter’s Basilica from Wednesday, ahead of his funeral this weekend.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to travel to the Vatican over the next three days to pay their respects to the pontiff, who died on Easter Monday at the age of 88.
After his funeral on Saturday morning (9am UK time) there will be a nine-day period of mourning, known as the “novendiali”, after which the secretive meeting – called the conclave – will begin to elect a new pope.
Pope Francis: Follow the latest
The conclave to choose his successor must start between 5 and 10 May.
The first images of his body were released on Tuesday, showing him in red vestments and his bishop’s mitre in a wooden casket.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, standing over the body of Pope Francis. Pic: Reuters
The Vatican secretary of state was shown praying over him in the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel where he lived and died.
Previous popes were entombed in three coffins: the first made of wood, another of lead and a third, again made of wood. But in 2024, Francis changed the rules and said that only one coffin, a wooden one lined in zinc, should be used.
In a break from tradition, he will be buried in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major), according to his wishes.
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3D map shows pope’s funeral route
Following the pope’s death, from a stroke and heart failure, world leaders have praised his moral leadership and compassion.
On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer described him as “a quite remarkable man, and the work and commitment that he put into fairness over so many years, and globally, I think will be a real lasting legacy”.
Sir Keir will join a growing list of dignitaries who will attend the funeral on Saturday, including Prince William, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ireland’s prime minister Micheal Martin, Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia, and Donald Trump.
Read more from Sky News:
St Peter’s Square full of smiles
How accurate is Conclave?
What next after the Pope?
Huge numbers have attended the funerals of Pope Francis’s predecessors.
In 2023, around 50,000 people attended the funeral of Benedict XVI, according to the Washington Post. In 2005, around 300,000 went to the funeral of John Paul II.
Once the conclave begins, cardinals vote in secret sessions in the Sistine Chapel.
After voting sessions, the ballots are burned in a special stove. Black smoke indicates that no pope has been elected, while white smoke indicates that the cardinals have chosen the next head of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis died little more than half an hour after being taken ill, Vatican sources have told Sky News.
Pope Francis woke at 6am on Monday, and was fine for at least an hour, sources said, as they revealed details of the pontiff’s final moments.
Around 7am, the Vatican’s medical unit received an emergency call from his Casa Santa Marta apartment.
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Where will Pope Francis be buried?
Pope latest – Prince William to attend funeral
An urgent transfer to the Gemelli hospital, where he was treated for pneumonia earlier this year, was among the options considered.
A request for an urgent escort from the Vatican was received by Rome police after 7am, sources there said, but, given how quickly his condition worsened, it was cancelled by Vatican officials before 7.35am.
Francis died at the age of 88, a day after making his final public appearance at St Peter’s Square, where he greeted crowds on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days of the Christian calendar.
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First images of pope’s casket
The Vatican said he died from a stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure.
He is currently lying in state in the Santa Marta Domus in a private viewing for Vatican residents and the papal household.
Francis will be laid to rest Saturday, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects.
The funeral will take place outside, in the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica, and will start with a procession led by a priest carrying a cross, followed by the coffin and ordained clergy.
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‘Many were in tears, I was in tears’
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, will lead the service. Nine days of mourning begin afterwards.
Unlike his predecessors, Francis will be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major), as per his final burial wishes, announced on Monday.
The basilica is dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, and is where Francis traditionally went to pray before and after foreign trips.
He will be the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century.
In another change from tradition, he will be buried in a simple wooden casket, forgoing the centuries-old practice of burying the late pope in three interlocking caskets made of cypress, lead, and oak.
Prince William will attend the funeral on behalf of King Charles, Kensington Palace has said.
Cardinals will gather in a conclave to choose his successor afterwards.
Read more:
Is the Conclave movie accurate?
Pope Francis: A life in pictures
Francis was a champion of the deprived
Inside Vatican City at moment of high tension
Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff, had suffered from a chronic lung disease and had part of a lung removed as a young man.
Health issues plagued him throughout his later life, and he was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome on 14 February for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. He stayed at the hospital for 38 days before being released.
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