Mohamed Jamal urged his longtime friend Musab Abbas to flee the heavy clashes near his home in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and stay with him in the south of the city, a safe distance away from the battle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

When they spoke shortly after sundown on April 30, Abbas agreed, but insisted on first using his neighbour’s generator to charge his phone in order to stay connected with friends and family. Jamal has not seen or heard from Abbas since.

“I started to search for him,” Jamal, 27, told Al Jazeera. “I came across some groups [set up to locate missing people on social media]. At first, I thought that the groups would have a small [number of people], but I was surprised.”