Aunnab is a young Sudanese journalist who entered journalism only a few years ago, meaning that conflict has been the backdrop of her entire professional career from the very beginning. Born and raised in Khartoum, she comes from a family shaped by decades of displacement. Her maternal grandmother fled South Sudan's war in the 1960s and 70s, while her father was displaced from Western Sudan in 2003 when conflict erupted in Darfur. Growing up hearing stories of war, displacement, and survival, Aunnab never imagined she would live through the same experiences her family endured. When war broke out in Sudan in 2023, she made a deliberate choice to stay, to witness, and to tell the story of her country from the inside.
In this episode, Dr Yemisi Akinbobola speaks with Aunnab to explore what it means to become a journalist in the middle of war, with no formal training, no newsroom infrastructure, and no electricity or internet for weeks at a time. Aunnab shares how she taught herself journalism during the early months of the conflict, relying on literary writing skills she had developed before the war and guidance from a friend who connected her to a news agency. She recounts writing her first story within months of the war's outbreak and how international outlets were eager for stories from Sudan, yet often imposed narratives that did not reflect the lived realities of Sudanese people. Aunnab describes the constant negotiation with editors who want certain angles included, and how she has learned to stand her ground, refusing assignments that contradict her moral compass or misrepresent the truth on the ground.
A significant portion of the conversation focuses on why she chose to stay in Sudan when so many journalists fled. She explains that her family refused to leave, having been displaced before and unwilling to abandon their home again. Her younger brother had been shot in the leg, making movement nearly impossible. But beyond family circumstances, Aunnab made a conscious decision to remain because she realised that Sudanese people do not control their own narrative. She spent the first three months of the war reading Sudan's history, trying to understand the roots of the conflict, and discovered that most stories about Sudan are told by foreigners, reduced to statistics in organisational reports and international news. She decided that even if her family changed their minds and left, she would stay to build a Sudanese narrative, told by Sudanese voices, grounded in Sudanese realities.
Aunnab also speaks candidly about the gendered barriers women journalists face in Sudan. She explains that being a woman is the first barrier before being recognised as a journalist. When women go to cover events, take photographs at gas stations, or report from public spaces, they are often arrested, accused of being spies, or questioned simply for being women in those spaces. Male journalists face fewer restrictions and less scrutiny. Women journalists in Sudan, she says, are working while surviving. They are trying to protect themselves, earn money to support their families, and navigate a system that sees their gender as a threat before it sees their profession as legitimate.
Aunnab closes with a powerful message to the world. She urges listeners not to reduce Sudan's war to statistics or headlines. She calls on people to read Sudan's history from 1956 onward, to understand the cultural and political forces that brought the country to this point, and to recognise that what is happening in Sudan is not a civil war but a war over power and resources involving multiple foreign actors. She reminds young Sudanese women journalists that they are not alone, that they have made it this far despite impossible circumstances, and that they must keep going.
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