Amidst War: Jebel Marra's Bounty Spoils as Roads Remain Closed

Wed Oct 29 2025 19:05:59 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

In the fertile Jebel Marra region of Sudan, agricultural produce rots as internal conflict and poor infrastructure hinder access to markets. Despite the lush landscapes, families struggle to transport their harvests due to ongoing violence and road blockages.

Jebel Marra, a fertile area in Sudan, stands in stark contrast to the devastation engulfing the rest of the country due to war. While local farmers grow an abundance of crops, including prized oranges, they face dire challenges in reaching markets. Armed conflicts, blocked transport routes, and an overall insecure environment result in an overwhelming surplus of produce that often goes to waste. The situation reflects a grim reality for the people of Sudan, where basic needs clash with the impacts of ongoing civil strife.

There is a place in Sudan where it is almost possible to forget that a devastating civil war is going on.

Wrapped in bright colours and wearing plastic sandals, women in the country's Jebel Marra mountains set off each morning on donkeys, children in tow, to tend the fields.

In a Mediterranean-like climate and using the fertile soil, they grow peanuts, oranges, apples and strawberries - rare crops for a country now facing one of the world's worst hunger crises. Before the conflict, Jebel Marra's organic oranges were particularly prized across the country for their juiciness.

The mountainous area in this part of the western Darfur region is dotted with green peaks, especially now as it is the rainy season.

The rest of Sudan teeters on the edge of disaster.

Across the country, as a result of the two-and-a-half years of fighting that has crippled agriculture, almost 25 million people - half the population - are facing severe food shortages, including more than 600,000 who are experiencing famine, according to the UN.

But in the lush highlands of Jebel Marra, the problem is not growing food – it is getting the produce out.

We almost sell them for free and sometimes get rid of them on the way [to market], because they get rotten, says Hafiz Ali, an orange vendor in Golo town, which is in the midst of the mountains in Central Darfur state.

The insecurity and the poor state of the roads make transportation almost impossible.

Jebel Marra is the last remaining territory controlled by the Sudan Liberation Army - Abdulwahid (SLA-AW). This armed group has remained neutral in the current war.

Now, surrounded by war on all sides, the region is increasingly isolated.

The result is a closed-off environment where farmers and middlemen can no longer reach the national markets in the cities of el-Fasher, 130km (82 miles) away, or Tine, on the Chadian border, 275km (170 miles) away.

There are other alternatives but none have the same national reach and all involve treacherous journeys.

Returns to the Jebel Marra region to find lorries filled with people fleeing the fighting, particularly around el-Fasher, can be seen on a daily basis. Many of them find shelter in schools, clinics and other public spaces receiving little to no humanitarian assistance.

In Golo, the de facto capital of the SLA-AW territory, a woman who had escaped from el-Fasher, described the dire conditions. She is now sheltering in a classroom with 25 other freshly arrived families.

”We have no income. No jobs to do, I used to work as a nurse and I can farm, but the land here belongs to people who work only for themselves. We don’t know what to do,” the woman said.

This is the Jebel Marra region, a strange world surrounded by war, a world of green mountains and waterfalls. A world of bright, juicy fruit. A world of frightened evacuees.