Sudanese football takes refuge in Mauritania to escape war

Every day, without fail, Muhamed Abdelrahman, 31, checks news sites and social media from his hotel room in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania , hoping to read news that suggests an end to the war in Sudan , his country. "Sometimes, I have the impression that things will improve, that we will soon be able to go home," says the cheerful captain of Al-Hilal Omdurman, a 55-time international for Sudan. "But very quickly, the bad news arrives, and I understand that it is far from over, that I will still have to wait, to worry about my loved ones who are still there."

Since July 2024, Al-Hilal and its arch-rival Al-Merreikh – both based in Omdurman, the twin city across the Nile from the capital Khartoum – thirty and twenty-three times winners of the Sudanese Premier League respectively, have taken refuge in Mauritania, invited by the country's federation to participate in the local championship. Far from the civil war between General al-Bourhan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as "Hemetti."

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