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Nodding approvingly in the corner is the school's 63-year-old founder Amna Mohamed Ahmed, known to most as "Amna Oor", which partly means lion in the Beja language of eastern Sudan.

She has spent the last three decades helping hundreds return to their education in Port Sudan, now the country's de facto capital.

The educator, who wears an orange headscarf wrapped neatly around her head, said she started the project in 1995 because of widespread illiteracy in her community.

"That's what pushed me to act. People wanted to learnÌý— if they didn't, they wouldn't have kept coming," she said.Ìý

Ahmed's classes offer a second chance to those who missed out on formal education, particularly women who were denied schooling due to cultural or financial barriers.

A fresh startÌý

For 39-year-old Nisreen Babiker, returning to school has been a long-held dream.

She left school in 2001 after marrying and taking on the responsibility of raising her younger siblings following her father's death.

"My siblings grew up and studied, and my children too," she said.

"I felt the urge to return to school. Even after all these years, it feels like I'm starting fresh," she told AFP.

Ahmed's school has also become a haven for those displaced by Sudan's ongoing conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million, and driven swathes of the country into hunger and famine.

Maria Adam is among those who fled their homes after war broke out. She arrived in Port Sudan seeking safety and a better future.

"When I arrived in Port Sudan, I heard about this place and joined," said the 28-year-old, noting that she dropped out of school when she was 11.

Changing livesÌý

"I want to finish my education so I can help my children," Adam said.

Sudan's education system has been shattered by the conflict, with the United Nations estimating that over 90 percent of the country's 19 million school-age children now have no access to formal learning.

Across the nation, most classrooms have been converted into shelters for displaced families.

Even before the war, a 2022 Save the Children analysis ranked Sudan among the countries most at risk of educational collapse.

But the determination to learn remains strong at the Port Sudan school, where many students have gone on to enter high school and some have even graduated from university.

In one corner of the classroom, a mother joins her young son in a lesson, hoping to reshape both their futures.

"To watch someone go from not knowing how to read or write to graduating from university, getting a job, supporting their family -- that is what keeps me going," Ahmed said.

"They go from being seen as a burden to becoming productive, educated members of society," she added.

Sudan facing 'abyss' unless war ends

Late in February, the United Nations warnedÌýthatÌý³§³Ü»å²¹²ÔÌýis facing the abyss and potentially hundreds of thousands of deaths unless the devastating war in the country ends and aid pours in.

UN human rights chiefÌýVolker TurkÌýpainted a bleak outlook for Sudan, where famine has already taken hold and millions have fled their homes amid intense fighting between rival forces.

"Sudan is a powder keg, on the verge of a further explosion into chaos, and at increasing risk of atrocity crimes and mass deaths from famine," Turk warned the UN Human Rights Council.

He called the country "the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe".

"We are looking into the abyss. Humanitarian agencies warn that without action to end the war, deliver emergency aid, and get agriculture back on its feet, hundreds of thousands of people could die."

Turk said more than 600,000 people were "on the brink of starvation", with famine reported to have taken hold in five areas, including the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur.

Turk said five more areas could face famine in the next three months, while a further 17 are considered at risk. He said an estimated 8.8 million people had been forced from their homes within Sudan, while 3.5 million more have fled across borders.

"This is the biggest displacement crisis in the world," he said.

"Some 30.4 million people need assistance, from healthcare to food and other forms of humanitarian support."Ìý

Presenting his annual report on the human rights situation in Sudan, Turk said some of the acts it documented may constitute war crimes and other atrocity crimes.

Turk said the Sudanese people had endured "unfathomable suffering and pain" since the conflict began, "with no peaceful solution in sight."