Today marks the second anniversary of the war in Sudan, which has so far claimed more than 150,000 lives.
The United Nations has called it the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Around 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the Sudanese Armed Forces and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, began a vicious struggle for power in April 2023.
Around 200 Irish citizens and their dependents were evacuated, along with citizens from other countries who were in Sudan when fighting began on 15 April of that year.
"It was supposed to be such a joyous, joyous time," recalls Safa El-Tom.
She was in her home in Ireland preparing to visit Sudan to celebrate Eid with her parents and family members, including her niece's new baby, who had been born prematurely.
There were also wedding celebrations to look forward to - her best friend's daughter was due to get married.
However, on the morning of 15 April, she woke up to a video on her phone showing gunfire at the airport in Khartoum, where she knew her brother-in-law was.
Over the next few days, she spoke to her sister and family members every day, with the sounds of a "full-blown war" audible in the background.
Becoming emotional, she said: "And the other thing apart from the military aircraft, it would be the baby crying. And then I’m shouting … are you alive, are you alive?"
She said her family finally made it to safety in Egypt after a costly bus journey and eight days of waiting at the border.
"One of the first families to cross over was my cousin's family, his wife and daughters," she said.
However, her cousin stayed behind in Sudan with his son because, Safa said, boys under 15 were not allowed to cross over.
Read more: UN chief calls for an end to the flow of weapons to Sudan
"Hundreds of families left their boys behind waiting for a kind of security clearance," she said.
Safa said: "The whole of the last two years, each and every day of them is full of scary stories."
She has only recently seen the damage caused to her family home after the army retook areas of Khartoum and the RSF fighters retreated.
"In those two years, Khartoum was demolished beyond any imagination" and her home was significantly damaged.
Photographs taken in recent days show the rooms, including her father’s library, ransacked, all valuables taken and the garden destroyed.
Before the war broke out she had no intention of ever returning to live there.
"But now, after all this devastation, how can we not go back?" she said.
"Otherwise, who's going to build it, like we're the people least traumatised, and we're the only people who can start because everybody else have to rebuild their lives.
"So we have to go back. I don't think it's a matter of choice or options now. I think it's a matter of necessity and absolute duty," Sada added.
A return will not be happening anytime soon, though.
"I think a post-war Sudan is still in the far, far distant future. I think this conflict is far from being over," she said.
As the conflict enters into its third year Médecins Sans Frontières said millions of people remain "unseen, bombed, besieged, displaced and deprived of food, medical care and basic lifesaving services".
MSF is reiterating its calls on the warring parties and their allies to ensure that civilians, humanitarian personnel, and medical teams are protected and that all restrictions are removed on the movements of humanitarian supplies and staff, especially as the rainy season fast approaches.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Deputy Head of Mission for MSF in West Darfur Sue Bucknell said: "Here, we see, as we do in many places in Sudan, a complete collapse of the health system, it's estimated around 70% of health facilities are no longer functioning since the start of the war.
"We're supporting mainly paediatric activity at the moment, and we continue to see a high number of patients, and at the moment, particularly high numbers of vaccine-preventable diseases," she said.
"We estimate in the last six to eight weeks that we've now seen around 200 cases of measles, this is really an indication of the breakdown of the health system during the last two years where children no longer have access to these routine immunisation and we're now seeing the consequence of that with these outbreaks," she added.
Dóchas, the Irish Network of Humanitarian and Development Organisations, said an immediate and sustained ceasefire must be prioritised to help bring about the end to the brutal conflict.
It said there are 3.7 million cases of children under five, and pregnant or breastfeeding women needing treatment for acute malnutrition, with famine declared in five provinces.
It said it is likely famine will be declared in five more provinces before May.
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Dr Amin Kheir, an Irish citizen who was visiting his family in Khartoum when fighting began, said: "It’s difficult to believe it's two years. It feels much longer".
"It lives with me every day, but I am one of the lucky people," Dr Kheir added.
He said: "It's even worse [in Sudan] compared to two years ago. People are dying every day, the situation is dire over there.
"45,000 children have lost their life because of malnutrition, and just in the last couple of days, RSF has been bombing refugee campus, and hundreds of people have died, but you don't hear about it anymore, which is really, really sad.
"What's happening in Sudan has been described by the UN as the largest humanitarian crisis in the world at the moment. Unfortunately, it's forgotten crisis," Dr Kheir added.
