Emi Mahmoud, poet: Has the world abandoned Sudan?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James Copnall, presenter of Newsday, speaks to Emi Mahmoud, Sudanese activist and poet, about the war that has claimed more than 150,000 lives since it began two years ago. In what the United Nations has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis, about 12 million people have also been forced to flee their homes.
Emi speaks about the pain of losing many members of her family, the brutality of the current conflict in the western region of Darfur which she believes to be genocide, and the trafficking of women and girls caught up in the fighting.
In the aftermath of the destruction of the Zamzam camp for displaced people, she describes life in the community there - and calls on the world to do more to resolve the violence in Sudan. As an award-winning poet, she uses her poems to spread her message.
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Image: Emi Mahmoud attends TIME100 Women's Leadership Forum at Chelsea Piers, Studio 59 on September 10, 2024 in New York City (Credit: Shannon Finney/Getty Images for TIME)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm James Cotnell, presenter of Newsday. |
| 0:02.9 | And this is the interview from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:06.3 | the best conversations coming out of the BBC, |
| 0:09.4 | people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:13.3 | I will come back to Russia. |
| 0:16.0 | I will participate in the elections. |
| 0:18.9 | There's an increase in violence, according to the coca crop. There's no increase in violence according to the coca crop. |
| 0:22.9 | There is no place in the world where women are equal. |
| 0:25.3 | I will give away the vast majority of my money and it's my full-time focus for the rest of my life. |
| 0:32.8 | For this interview, I meet Emmie Mahmoud, activist and poet from the Darfur region in the west of Sudan, |
| 0:39.9 | who spoke to me from her home in the USA. Emmy describes life in Darfur's recently destroyed |
| 0:45.5 | Zam Zam Camp for displaced people in powerful detail. She talks about the loss of life so frequent |
| 0:52.1 | it feels like there is not enough time to mourn, |
| 0:55.2 | and the brutality of the fighting taking place there that she believes to be genocide. |
| 1:00.5 | You're going to hear what it's like to be displaced over and over again, |
| 1:05.0 | and about the trafficking of women and girls in Darfur. |
| 1:08.5 | Her interview contains descriptions of violence you may find distressing. |
| 1:12.7 | The war in Sudan began two years ago between the army and a paramilitary group with its roots |
| 1:17.8 | in the notorious Janjouid militia and has claimed around 150,000 lives. Emmy is calling on the |
| 1:25.1 | international community to do more, to look, to listen, and to act. |
| 1:30.8 | She's an award-winning poet, and she uses her writing to tell the stories of Sudan. |
| 1:36.2 | Our parents came home with broken collar bones and a taste of fear, |
... |
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