Mohamed Amro, 27-year-old Sudanese engineer and president of Casa Sudansays that he was “lucky”, a word that he uses often, but that each time, he turns into a lever from which to reach out to other members of his community. “I was born in Spain and I love it very much, but I am Sudanese at heart“, he says in a interview with EL PERIÓDICO. The son of a Sudanese diplomat, he grew up between Venezuela, Sudan and Mozambique. But he returned to Sudan as an adult to study at university, and was there when the war broke out three years ago, in April 2023.
Having Spanish nationality, he was repatriated in the first days of the war. From those days it preserves images of “horror”: destroyed streets, corpses on the sidewalks and a broken city. “Sudan is destroyed, it’s not just the war“, he explains. The problem goes through the infrastructure, “there is a lack of water and electricity and there have been outbreaks of cholera and dengue,” he adds.
Obstacles to flee and save your life
More than 14 million people have fled their homes since April 2023, although the majority remain displaced within the country or have arrived in neighboring countries such as South Sudan, Chad or Egypt. To Spain, according UNHCRsome have entered 600 Sudanese people by Ceuta so far in 2026.
The Sudanese community in Spain is small and difficult to quantify. “It is very difficult to know how many Sudanese there are in Spain, because many people come, leave and leave again,” summarizes Amro. Many continue to other European countries, often the United Kingdom, since English is a co-official language in Sudan, as a former British colony. UNHCR also warns that many do not formalize their asylum application due to lack of information or obstacles to accessing the procedure.
Different routes
For this reason, when he was repatriated to Madrid, he made a mission his own: “try to help other young people who also came from the war and knew nothing about Spain “Nothing to expect.” He gave them Spanish classes and oriented them, and a year later, as president of Casa Sudan, he works to connect the newcomers with UNHCR y the Spanish Committee for Refugee Assistance (CEAR).
His story breaks two stereotypes: who arrives and how. “Many people think that Sudanese arrive in Spain only through Ceuta or Melilla, but many have come by plane,” he explains. During the first months of the war, Spain did not require an airport transit visa for Sudanese, which allowed them to safely request asylum on stopovers.. The requirement was introduced in June 2024 and closed that avenue.
“Requesting asylum at the airport was easier than doing so inside the countrywhere getting an appointment is incredibly difficult,” he points out. While that option was open, many families arrived. When it was closed, the profile turned towards young people capable of facing much more dangerous routes through the desert, Libya, Algeria, Morocco that even take years, since many have to work along the way to send remittances home.
UNISFA members in South Sudan POLITICS SOUTH SUDAN INTERNATIONAL / UNISFA / X
Extreme violence and reception
The greatest violence occurs in Libya. “They tell us stories of extortion, torture and horror“, he summarizes. “Many are kidnapped and forced to call their families to ask for ransom.” He also talks about captivity, beatings and complaints about slave markets. Stories that remain invisible. “There are horrors that do not appear in the media, or that only appear when someone stops to ask several times“he says, grateful for being able to tell it.
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