Amani Ali (left) and Salma AshShareef (right) pose for a portrait in the Iowa City Public Library on July 18, 2019. (Emily Wangen/The Daily Iowan)
By Andy Mitchell, The Daily Iowan
Sudan has made headlines worldwide for its year of protests and the violent response to those protests by the Sudanese interim government. The effects of that conflict have been felt all over the world, including the University of Iowa.
Amani Ali, a Sudanese-American student attending the UI, she traveled across the globe to spend a month in her home country. It was her first time back in Sudan since her family moved to the U.S. in 2004, and she said her return was a shock.
Ali’s family came to the U.S. as refugees in the wake of the Darfur genocide, which started in 2003. Upon her return to Sudan, she said, she was disheartened to see that very little had changed.
“In 15 years, you think a country would move forward with better infrastructure, better hospitals, better everything, but sadly, that’s not the case for Sudan,” Ali said.