More than 20,000 people have fled Sudan due to the fierce fighting that is ongoing between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
They are actually fleeing two conflicts – the war for control of Sudan, and a regional conflict fueled by armed criminal militia. These militias are remnants of the notorious Janjaweed fighters who turned to criminal activity after the Darfur insurgents were finally subdued by force.
The Hausa, the Fulani or Fallata as they are called here in Sudan, are some of the most prominent West African groups that moved east in large numbers and settled throughout Sudan.
But many of them settled in Sudan for economic reasons. There are also a sizeable number of people from West Africa who moved there to escape from their tyrannical pre-colonial traditional rulers.
Over a period that spanned hundreds of years, these people settled along various parts of Sudan, in places they fancied or places that were convenient – especially where people like them have already made home.
There are now millions of people whose grandparents and great-grandparents actually migrated to Sudan from Northern Nigeria and southern Niger Republic.
Darfur had a population of 9.2 million people as of 2017. That number is said to have increased to about 11.01 million people according to OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2022.
Though no census has ever been undertaken of the population of the numerous tribes here – the Hausa are certainly here in large numbers. There are estimates that they are about a third of the population of Darfur, which is around four million people.
Other West Africans in Darfur
There are of course many other Sudanese of West African extraction here whose forefathers came here for the same reasons the Hausa and Fallata left home.
The largest of these people is the Kanuri. They mostly live in the central areas of Darfur like Zalingei and Nyala. Next to the Hausa and Fulani, the Kanuri are the most populous people who settled in Sudan.
There are also Zarma people, one of the major ethnic groups in Niger Republic, who are also found in the north-western corner of Nigeria, specifically Kebbi State. They are found in large numbers in Mali, Benin Republic and Ghana. They are popularly called ‘Zabarmawa’ by the Hausa.
‘We are not insurgents’
One fact worth noting is the Hausa and other people of West African extraction were never part of the insurgency and did not join the Janjaweed militia. They preferred to engage in less dangerous activities like farming, trading and studying their Islamic texts.
But this has not excluded them from the effects of the spiralling conflict and its unintended impact on their lives.
They consider themselves Sudanese citizens in all respects – this means they have no desire to leave the country for anywhere unless things turn really drastically ugly.
I asked several men and women in the City of Geneina, whether they have contemplated leaving Sudan – in light of all the trouble around them – to return to West Africa, the land of their forebears.
“Not at all. I am Sudani and I will stay here till I die.” This is what Isa Ahmad Khidr Ahmad, a Hausa man from Geneina told me when I asked him what his immediate plans are.
He is a 65-year-old man who lives with his extended family of six (three daughters, three sons and Habiba his 59-year-old wife. He says all his sons have their own families but they chose to continue living together in one large house built with red bricks more than 80 years ago by his late father.
None of his three sons wants to leave Sudan too. His eldest son Khidr says this trouble too will pass: “There is nothing we haven’t seen. The Hausa and our brothers the Fallata do not engage in insurgency. We were largely left alone during the Darfur genocide, so we do not see anyone singling us out for reprisal attacks at all.”
I also visited Ahmad Juwly Ahmad, a Fallata who has a motley herd of camels, cattle, sheep and chickens at his farm near the western edge of Geneina. He is in his late 40s and says he has never entertained the thought of leaving Sudan.
“Leave Sudan? Go where? I am as Sudanese as anyone here.”
I then enquired if Ahmad can show me evidence of his Sudanese citizenship. He nodded and went into the house, and returned with some documents.
“This is my jinsiya, my father registered my birth in Al Fasher the very month I was born and this is my jawaz safar which I used to travel for Hajj six years ago.”
I asked if all his children, especially his daughters have Sudanese birth certificates?
“Yes, they do. I also have all my land title documents here in Darfur notarized”.
Bashir Dawud Abdallah is the Imam of the Sarr Avenue Mosque in Geneina. He immediately agreed to talk to me, after hearing that I am from Nigeria.
He said he is the descendant of the Hausa people who migrated here from Sokoto.
He talked nostalgically about a trip he and one of his late uncles took to Kano and Sokoto in the 1980s.
“It was surreal. I saw so many people in Kano, but the shocking thing was all of them spoke Hausa! I could not believe it. Millions and millions speaking Hausa everywhere I went.
“Sudan is my home now. No one can force me to leave, neither the Sudanese Army nor the Da’amah Sari”, which is what the Sudanese call the RSF.
In the town of Da’en which is in Sharq Darfur (North Darfur State), I visited the main market, the Souk Kabir, where almost half of the traders openly speak Hausa to each other and their customers.
I went straight to see Mohamed Musa, popularly called Mohamed Darfur. Like many Hausa people I have met in Sudan, trading seems to be an occupation they are partial to.
I asked him if he has ever considered moving back to West Africa, to escape all the trouble here.
“I have never visited Nigeria or Niger, but I know about the attacks and senseless killings by the Boko Haram and some other groups. Here in Darfur, we have lived with all this trouble for the past 30 years. We have adjusted to the reality over time.”
I then played the sentimental card. Does he not want to see his long-lost kith and kin from places like Katsina, Sokoto and Kano?
“Of course I do. I sometimes wish I can visit Nigeria for an extended period, but I can’t because my life is here now. I have all my family and friends right here in Darfur.”
Hiba Adam Babeker says she is in her forties, born and raised in Zalingei to a ‘mixed’ parentage – a Hausa father who married from a local Fulani family from the town of Om Ruwaba to the east from here.
I asked if she has any family in Nigeria.
“Of course I do. We all do.”
I asked her if she has ever visited them, or if they visited her family here in Darfur.
“No I don’t, but my late father and his brother visited Nigeria two years before he died. It was quite emotional, and he brought back phone numbers of some of his distant cousins, and we still talk to them over the phone.”
She said her father was from Bauchi State but could not recall the actual town.
Asked if she has considered returning there she retorted: “I’d like to visit, but since my husband died, it has been a struggle keeping the family fed and clothed.”
It is clear that the population of Hausa and Fulani people in eastern Sudan is far larger than anywhere else. States like Kassala, Port Sudan, Blue Nile and Gadaref have millions of Hausa people, with towns like Hauwata, Abrakham and Bazura in Gadaref State having Hausa as the major ethnic group there.
How other Nigerians in Sudan’s western region are faring
Many Nigerian students headed in the direction of Gadaref, which shares a border with Ethiopia, when fighting initially broke out in Khartoum. Although these students and some Nigerians who took that route could not initially cross into Ethiopia due to visa issues, they easily found the area a very welcoming one due to the large numbers of Hausa-speaking people there.
Some female students were even accommodated by Fadla al Sidig, the local Fulani leader in Gadaref. They stayed with his family in Gadaref till they and the other students were able to cross into Ethiopia, and from there were flown back to Nigeria.
There are also hundreds and thousands of Nigerians, mostly Hausa speakers in Khartoum State in central Sudan.
‘Najeriya ce asalinmu, Sudan ce gidanmu’
This was the sentiment that Yahya Musa, a native of Nyala City in Darfur shared with me when I spoke to him over the phone.
I found out he was in Kano when the fighting broke out and has left his immediate family at his Omdurman home. He is currently trying to find a way – any way, he says – to return ‘home’ to his family.
“I came here to Kano before Ramadan to pursue a business opportunity. When the fighting started, I felt helpless. I do not know how to get back home”.
I gently reminded him that he is already at home in Nigeria.
He laughed and said, “What you say is true, but remember Nigeria is the home of our great grandparents, Nigeria is where we come from, but right now Sudan is our home.”
Yahya Musa’s situation aptly illustrates the situation at hand – while the Hausa from the West African region, specifically Nigeria are scrambling to leave Sudan for Nigeria, many Sudanese Hausa like him currently in Nigeria and many countries around the region are doing everything humanly possible to return ‘home’ to Sudan.
The sentiment among these people in Sudan is clearly strong – they may identify as Hausa, Fallata, Kanuri or Zarma. They may still speak the language, eat the food and wear the attires of their forefathers, but they also consider themselves fully integrated into Sudanese society. These people are not going anywhere, they say they are here for good.
Aliyu is a freelance journalist currently in Sudan
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