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"Darfur is hell on earth". This is how Elena Taulet, a technician at the Universitat Politécnica de València (UPV) in charge of the Erasmus+ K171 project, defines the region located in western Sudan, near one of those straight lines with which the European powers irresponsibly decided to divide part of the African continent at the Berlin Lecture of 1884-1885 under the auspices of Bismarck.

There, in 2003, the mainly Arab militias of ex-dictator Omar Al Bashir carried out a ferocious campaign of ethnic cleansing. In total, more than 300,000 people were killed in Darfur, which is now home to the Kalma refugee camp where more than 100,000 people now live permanently.

"Being born in Darfur and ending up studying at the UPV has incredible merit", Elena emphasises without hiding her admiration. And that is what, thanks to the collaboration of the International Affairs Office (OAI-UPV) and the Development Cooperation Centre (CCD-UPV) with the Comboni College of Science and Technology in Khartoum (Sudan), Ayoub achieved at the beginning of this year.

A student of Computer Engineering, Ayoub arrived at the UPV in February with the intention of continuing a key training for his future and that of his family, his wife (Arafa) and his son (Khalid), from whom he initially separated momentarily to continue his studies in Valencia.

On 15 April, war broke out in Sudan

When Ayoub left Sudan for Spain on 4 February, he could not have imagined that his country, which had put an end to 30 years of Al Bashir's dictatorship in July 2019 - with a peaceful revolution that gave way to a democratic transition which, despite the coup d'état of October 2021, was due to be completed on 6 April - that a new armed conflict would break out in his country during his stay at the UPV.

But that is exactly what happened. On 15 April, with Ayoub in Spain, the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) started the 3rd Sudanese Civil War, with special incidence in Khartoum, where "they had to run away from Comboni College, located a short distance from the presidential palace", explains Elena.

An unknown number of dead and almost 5 million displaced persons

The war, which more than six months later is still raging in the African country, has caused an unknown number of deaths - different sources speak of several thousand, but without sufficiently credible concrete data - and, according to the International Organisation for Migration, almost 5 million displaced people, 3.8 million of them internally, and 1.1 million who have already left the country.

Ayoub's odyssey

Faced with the impossibility of returning to his country once the term was over, barely communicating with his family - electricity and internet connection cuts have been common since the beginning of the conflict and have lasted several weeks each - and with Comboni College inoperative - and it is not known to what extent physically destroyed - Ayoub had few solutions left.

Faced with this situation, the UPV, with the collaboration of the Spanish Embassy in Sudan (now relocated to Madrid as a result of the conflict), the Spanish Embassy in Kenya, and Father Jorge Naranjo - director of the Comboni College and currently in Egypt - began the difficult process of trying to enable Ayoub to study a second term at the UPV and thus complete his education.

"Going back there, or trying to go back, would almost certainly mean giving up studying, if not worse," says Elena Taulet. "That's why we all set out to try to give her the chance to study for a second term here at the UPV, to do her final degree project and to finish her degree.

"It has been very complicated," says the UPV technician, "because the documents needed to apply for the extension were at his university of origin, and in addition, Sudan is still included on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism (despite Donald Trump's announcement in October 2020 to eliminate it), so you have to send everything several times to explain that Ayoub has nothing to do with it.

"Faced with the impossibility of getting in and out of Sudan, we arranged a visa for him in Kenya. He had to travel there and, once he had done that, we were able to continue the whole process until it was completed". That is why today, Ayoub is at the UPV doing his Bachelor's thesis under the supervision of Professor Antonio Martí.

Ayoub: "The first thing I want to ask for is to stop a war that is devastating the country"

"The first thing I want to do is to send a message to the people of my country, of Sudan. I want to ask them to stop this war that is devastating the country, destroying the country and the lives of the Sudanese people. With a serious face and logically worried about his family and the situation in his country, these are the first words that come out of the mouth of Ayoub, with whom we have the opportunity to speak at the Vera campus of the UPV.

"When I left Sudan on 4 February, it was a peaceful country in good conditions, and the war has changed everything," Ayoub laments. "I came to do a term and go back to my country with my family, but I still haven't been able to go back, there was no way, and they are still there, part of them in Khartoum, in the centre of the conflict and, fortunately, another part far from there, in a safer place".

How does he communicate with his family?

"When I couldn't enter Sudan, I finally decided to go to Kenya to get a new permit to come back here and have more time to continue studying," says Ayoub, who recalls that, "before the war started, there was already some instability in terms of electricity and internet services, and now the situation has become more complicated. It is difficult to contact my family. Sometimes there are 20 days or a month without electricity and internet, so I have to go for weeks without hearing from my wife and son. When I can, I talk to them through social networks, especially whatsapp, which is the only service they can use because of the weak internet. You can't use Teams or Skype, so when I can, I use whatsapp or phone calls, which are very expensive at times".

Father Jorge Naranjo's help from Egypt, Elena, the embassies...

"The university I come from in Sudan is very close to the presidential palace. It is located in the centre of the capital, where right now there are a large number of armed groups. There were armed groups even in peacetime during protests to protect a road that leads directly to the palace. Comboni College is in a very sensitive area, which is why it was the first college to be closed by the outbreak of war. The college staff had to flee. Some went to Egypt, others to Ethiopia, South Sudan...", explains Ayoub, who adds: "I have no connection with the university other than the help of Father Jorge, the Spanish director of Comboni College, who is working from Egypt".

He speaks of Jorge Naranjo, from the Order of the Comboni Fathers, who are responsible for giving Ayoub a chance for the future, along with the opportunity that the UPV is now offering him, the one that the war is trying to break: "I am very grateful to Father Jorge and to the UPV, and to the Spanish embassies in Kenya and Sudan. They have helped me a lot to be able to continue studying here while, hopefully, the war in my country will end".

For the moment, the war has not stopped and the death toll continues to rise. Sudan suffers, as Ayoub does for his own people. But he does so in the hope that, when it is over, hopefully soon, he will have enough education to try, to the best of his ability, to help improve things, to be part of a better future for his country and, above

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