Ahmed El Tahir gets upset for his young daughter as he recounts how she saw two people shot point blank while out for ice-cream in Sudan's capital Khartoum at the start of the latest war a year ago.
The 48-year-old Sudanese-Australian civil engineer is desperate to reunite with his wife and daughter who have been displaced to Egypt.
"When she (his daughter) hears a chopper or an aeroplane, she starts to hide under the bed," he told AAP.
"My daughter is an Australian citizen and has her passport. I applied to get my wife here but ... I still haven't received a humanitarian visa for her.
"All my thinking is geared towards them. I can't concentrate the whole time."
His seven-year-old daughter had no citizenship papers at the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023 to prove she could be evacuated with other Australian nationals, let alone with her mother who is a Sudanese national.
She and her mother had an arduous journey waiting for four months at the border crossing between Sudan and Egypt.
Amid a rising xenophobic climate, thousands of Sudanese refugees have been racially abused, assaulted and in some cases kidnapped by organised gangs and their body parts sold in Cairo.
The lack of safety for his family keeps Mr El Tahir up at night.
He wants the Australian government to set up a special humanitarian scheme for Sudanese people to be repatriated with families in Australia, similar to those offered to Afghans and Ukrainians.
"At least we need to be treated the same as those who had family in crises like Ukraine, Afghanistan or other parts of the world," he said.
"We tried to mention this to (Immigration Minister) Andrew Giles. We are Australian and are supposed to be treated the same but when it comes to the Sudanese crisis, nothing has happened."
Hailing from the restive Darfur region, Mr El Tahir came to Australia as a refugee in 2003 escaping the autocratic rule of Omar al-Bashir.
Al Bashir has been accused of war crimes in Darfur over the killing of hundreds of thousands of people two decades ago, including relatives of Mr El Tahir.
It has become a flashpoint again in the latest conflict between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudan national army with Human Rights Watch saying an ethnic cleansing campaign has taken place.
"We feel devastated and heartbroken. Most of our families have been shattered. We are a collectivist society ... and no one is safe at all," Mr El Tahir said.
For Canberra-based Amad Mohamed, 33, his family in Darfur have been internally displaced and others have been able to cross into neighbouring countries including Libya which has been plagued by an all-out militia war.
"This has been very difficult for all of us in the diaspora. It (the war) has a direct and tangible effect on me and my family," said the co-founder of the Sudanese Australian Advocacy Network.
"Australians need to understand this is not just a far off problem - it affects real families.
"Our relatives are living through a nightmare dealing with extreme violence, displacement and food insecurity."
The United Nations says 25 million people in Sudan - about half the population - are in dire need of humanitarian aid.
The Sudanese Australian Advocacy Network wrote to Foreign Minister Penny Wong along with Oxfam and other humanitarian groups last month, urging the Australian government to commit $50 million for lifesaving aid in war-torn Sudan.
Mr Mohamed says the 17,000-strong Sudanese community in Australia is also worried about the Albanese government's proposed legislation to deport non-citizens.
"We continue to receive calls and concerns regarding the visa processing status and they (Sudanese in Australia) have a lot of fears with regards to the proposed policy and wondering if that will impact them," he said.
Mr Mohamed said Mr Giles had assured his group that no one would be be deported to the conflict zone.
AAP contacted the minister's office but has not received a reply.
