‘There has been utter destruction in Sudan,’ says Cork-based doctor

This day last year, civil war erupted in Sudan, leaving thousands dead and millions displaced. Dr Osama Ali tells Sarah Horgan of the pain that Cork's Sudanese community endures as their homeland is torn apart

Cork-based paediatric consultant Osama Ali’s mother and siblings had to flee Sudan’s capital Khartoum, now the front line in the conflict between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. Picture: Marwan Ali/AP

After 12 months of harrowing updates on the civil war ravaging his native Sudan, Cork-based paediatric consultant Osama Ali is unsure if his family home is even still standing.

For Dr Ali, who works in the Mercy University Hospital, daily images of Sudan on social media feeds show how the country is being torn apart, with so many locations he once frequented now utterly unrecognisable.