07-04-2025 | di COOPI

Sudan. Life on hold in Karrari: COOPI's response on the field

Karrari, Sudan, remains the only accessible area of Khartoum State since the onset of the conflict, and is currently hosting over 22,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in precarious conditions across gathering sites, schools and mosques. Through the project “Area Based Response: Urgent Support for WASH and SNFI Needs in the Open Area Refugee Settlement in Khartoum”, funded by the Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) via OCHA, COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale is delivering life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable displaced communities in the area.

These families fled from other parts of Khartoum State, now unsafe and unreachable, bringing with them only a few essential belongings. Among them is Amal, a young woman who received a non-food items (NFI) kit from COOPI. She shared that in July 2024 she was forced to flee Jabel Awlia, leaving behind her home, her dreams and her small business. Today, she lives in a school-turned-shelter in Karrari with her three children, sharing the overcrowded space with 80 other families in precarious sanitary and living conditions. Thanks to the NFI kit, her children now have mattresses to sleep on, clean clothes, jerrycans for safe water collection and a solar lamp that allows them to reach sanitation facilities at night with greater security. While receiving the kit one of her children was so happy and enthusiast that couldn’t wait to reach home, so she smiled and opened her new colored umbrella.

Despite the ongoing clashes, COOPI was able to safely and timely implement the distribution and to reach the most vulnerable families affected by the conflict, prioritizing those with disable children, female headed household with children and newly displaced who never received humanitarian assistance. 

Since May 2024, COOPI is present in Karrari and is supporting the most vulnerable families among IDPs, refugees and host community, through a multi-sectoral project financed by the SHF. Thanks to this project, specifically, COOPI could support more than 1,100 vulnerable families through the provision of life-saving NFI kits, composed by an in-kind donation by UNHCR and items directly purchased and distributed by COOPI, based on the major needs identified together with the communities. Today, COOPI’s interventions focus on key sectors including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), protection, humanitarian assistance, food security and livelihoods, as well as disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness.