Sudanese who escaped from war-torn Tuti island speak of hunger, disease 

FILE - A farmer sprinkles fertilizer onto crops at a field on Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan, Feb. 12, 2020. The island in the middle of the Nile serves as a microcosm for the devastation unleashed by a war that began in April 2023. FILE - Director of the Toxic Organism Research Center Dr. Rania Mohamed, and Dr. Manal Siyam search for snakes and scorpions on Tuti Island in Khartoum, Sudan, Sept. 12, 2022. FILE - A brick maker from Ad-Damazin carries a mould of mud bricks to be dried at an open-air factory on Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan, Feb. 14, 2020.

Muhammad Awad and his family are among dozens who escaped Sudan's Tuti island earlier this year amid a siege by the Rapid Support Forces, finding refuge at a shelter after surviving for months on scant food and the risk of disease.