By Molly Claire Goddard
2:34pm PST, Jan 22, 2026
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In a powerful essay for
The Telegraph, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, recalled what she saw while visiting the Adré transit camp. "Standing on the border of Sudan a year ago, I watched a countless stream of people making their way on foot or by donkey-drawn carts into neighboring Chad," she wrote. "Some travelled with families, but others were alone. In the calm of that moment, I shuddered to imagine what these exhausted, traumatized people had experienced and seen, having fled their towns and the brutality of raging militias."
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To emphasize the dire situation, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, specifically recalled the stories she heard. "Their deeply personal and shocking accounts reflected the experiences of so many," she wrote. "Their eyes telling tales of horrors no one should ever see. Bodies piled up like a wall, families drowned at gunpoint, children carved in two and beaten. Those who can escape live in fear of being killed later."
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Despite the hardship, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, highlighted the immense character of the people. "Yet even in such desperate circumstances, what stayed with me most was the extraordinary strength I witnessed," she said. "At a Plan International mobile protection unit, I met women who had fled the conflict, now caring for children separated from their families. Their resilience and quiet leadership reminded me of what I have witnessed time and again — that women are central not only to surviving crises, but to rebuilding and striving for lasting peace."
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According to journalist
Hannah Furness, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh's advocacy for Sudan earned her the title of "savior" of the royal family. "It is difficult work — vivid, traumatic, and often far, far removed from the soap opera of royal headlines back in Britain," she wrote for
The Telegraph.
