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Sudanese migrants who fled the fighting and unrest in Darfur are again facing war, trapped for three weeks while Libyan union government forces are fighting strong man Khalifa Haftar.
After often brutal trips, they were forced to take refuge in a school in central Tripoli, which was closed by the authorities last week while fighting was near the capital.
In the multicolored corridors of the building, children laugh and run in front of the clbadrooms where chairs and desks have been pushed aside to make way for the mattresses.
The laundry dries in the yard in the sun while adults huddle in the shade.
"I fled a war to find another," sighed Alawia, a mother in her forties.
The Sudanese woman from Darfur was living in Saadia, south-west of Tripoli, with her three children when clashes erupted.
"At first, we thought the fighting would stop after two or three days, then the planes started dropping bombs," she said.
"I took my kids and left without knowing where to go."
& # 39; No life here & # 39;
The UN said the fighting in the southern suburbs of Tripoli had displaced at least 35,000 people since Haftar's forces launched their April 4 bid for the capital, the government's seat of national accord , recognized internationally.
Among them, a hundred people, mostly from Darfur, who sought refuge at the school Ahmad Ibn Chatwan with the help of the Libyan Red Crescent.
For many Sudanese migrants staying at the school in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, this makeshift shelter is the last leg of a long and dangerous journey. By FADEL SENNA (AFP)
"We feel safe, we have learned that the fighting is going on but we are still smiling, there is water and food," said Abdelrbadoul, 38 39, speaking in English, the voice trembling.
For him, like many others at the Fortune Shelter, school is the ninth stage of a painful odyssey.
Tears flow down his cheeks as he remembers his "utterly destroyed" village in Darfur where his family was killed in 2003, the refugee camp he was forced to settle in, and the Arduous journey from north to Egypt and then to Libya a few years later.
The brutal conflict in his original region claimed the lives of about 300,000 people and the government was accused of war crimes while fighting rebel ethnic minorities.
Abdelrbadoul said he was kidnapped three times in Libya before arriving in Tripoli in September with a plan to "cross the sea to go to Europe".
"And suddenly, the war broke out."
After often brutal journeys, Sudanese migrants were forced to flee to a school in central Tripoli that was closed by the authorities last week as fighting near the capital reached its peak. By FADEL SENNA (AFP)
A week after the fighting began, he escaped with his wife, two young daughters and several other families, including pregnant women and young children.
They walked for hours and followed instructions from locals to the Libyan Red Crescent-run field stations.
As the front lines moved on, they continued to move from the suburbs of Gasr ben Ghachir and Ain Zara to two different schools in Tripoli.
"Every time we arrived somewhere, the war followed us," he said.
& # 39; We have no choice & # 39;
Most migrants in Libya share the same goal – Europe – hoping that their perilous journeys will not have been in vain.
Visibly exhausted, a man said he was arrested by a non-Libyan armed group in the desert while he was heading to the capital.
"They raped my wife … she is two months pregnant and I do not know if she is my child or not," he said.
Most migrants in Libya share the same goal – Europe – hoping that their perilous journeys will not have been in vain. By FADEL SENNA (AFP)
Standing near him, Jihan Hussein, 26, arrived in Tripoli about seven months ago after a dangerous desert trip with her husband and two children.
"We suffered on the road … we suffered here," she said, her face framed by a black and white striped veil.
She says that after arriving in the capital, a man approached her husband and asked him if he was looking for work.
"He took her and since then we have no news."
She sought refuge in the skeletons of destroyed buildings and lived on the street, where she says she was raped.
"We are tired," she sighed.
"I do not have money … I am ready to sell one of my organs.If I have to sell a kidney, I will do it and I will make the trip by sea in Europe." We do not have a choice. "
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