A Sudanese doctor laboring to offer medical care in the African nation and the American director of a significant humanitarian relief group have both described their personal experiences escaping the turmoil in Sudan last month while dodging bullets and explosions.
The woman who runs a significant non-profit organization that offers healthcare to more than 200,000 migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers provided details of her experience on The Ray Hanania Radio Show, which is supported by Arab News, but she asked to remain anonymous.
She told how the violence broke out outside her home and workplace in Khartoum on April 15 and the terrifying departure of about 50 individuals she organized to safety, which included navigating armed checkpoints run by uneasy young militia men.
“The international community’s evacuation plans were inadequate, if not nonexistent. We had hoped to travel to Port Sudan with the UN convoy. We had booked a bus in advance. And thanks once more to the Sudanese, our guards, (who) made four round trips to get them to safety, I was going to take 50 individuals, including four of my international staff members, to the hotel,” she recounted, her voice breaking with emotion.
“The night before we were meant to leave, we were gathered in the hotel when we learned that the UN had outbid our bus at midnight. In order to include our bus in their convoy, the UN quadrupled the price we were willing to pay. As a result, we were left without transportation.
She was left with roughly 20 people, largely Sudanese volunteers and laborers, after people who were desperate to leave the group split up. making it more challenging. She claimed that by limiting participation in the convoy that was authorized by the UN to non-Sudanese nationals exclusively, an extra barrier had been erected.
Additionally, they (the UN) had the authority to forbid Sudanese from traveling in the convoy. And when I learned that, I declared that to be unfair. I’m not leaving my Sudanese family, she declared, pointing to the swarming group of terrified individuals frantically trying to escape the carnage.
She claimed that because they were unable to go in a UN convoy, the group she was with was forced to reassemble. They took a detour in the hopes of reaching El-Gadarif (Al-Qadarif), where her NGO also had a sizable operation and might be able to provide assistance.
The rest of the company stayed in the As-Salam Hotel’s cellar in Khartoum. More individuals begged to join them as they waited, as they were desperate to flee. They crammed 26 individuals, all Sudanese except for six other nationals, into four sport utility cars to form a new caravan when she claimed she could not possibly refuse anyone. For the vehicles, they had to pay a black-market price of $110 per gallon of petrol.
“When we departed, there were dead people on the streets and bombed-out buildings. Vehicles used by the military failed. It was obvious that there had been a lot of fighting the day before. Bombing occurred close to the hotel. As air attacks occurred, we spent about an hour in a bunker in the basement, she recalled.
We had to move because they attacked the bank that was directly next to the hotel, they said. We were able to leave Khartoum without any problems. The four-vehicle convoy was travelling quite slowly. The paramilitaries let us to pass.
She witnessed unusual events, including tremendous violence and bombing in some regions and calm and normal activity in other areas that were only 15 minutes from the hotel yet required 45 minutes to get to. Life was routine. Shops were open, and public transportation was operating. Streets were crowded with people.
The Sudanese in the homes they passed came out to greet the convoys and offer food and water to people fleeing the fighting, she claimed, as they drew closer to the conflict in Khartoum.
