Jennifer McLellan and her four children were making their way across the bridge in a hired bus when gunfire broke out around them
This is any mother's worst nightmare .
After waiting days for a clear signal from the Foreign Office, Jennifer McLellan and her husband Mohamed finally decided to flee lawless Khartoum with their four children in the hope of reaching an RAF evacuation flight.
On Tuesday, when the temporary ceasefire seemed to hold, they took their chance.
It was not easy. On their way through the nerve-wracking town they know well, having lived there for 15 years, their tire blew and they had to pay over £300 to a passing private bus to pick them up.
Then approaching one of the numerous bridges in the capital, a shootout broke out around them.
“We were terrified,” said the English teacher, originally from Islay.
“There was some kind of bombing nearby, and“ Ambulance help” was running – and while they were running, they were shooting.”
The driver did the only thing he could: knock him off his feet.
«The driver pressed the gas pedal, and we drove so fast that we drove to the bridge on the wrong side.»
Yesterday with relief and weariness on her faces, Miss MacLellan stood beside her. family in the departure hall of Larnaca Airport, Cyprus, waiting for their flight to the UK.
On Wednesday, Jennifer McLellan and her family were preparing to board a charter flight to the UK. Making their way through the chaos of Khartoum
Like over 300 others, the family made their way through the chaotic streets of Khartoum to the Wadi Saidna airstrip, a few miles from the capital.
It was the day — finally, according to some critics when a British operation to evacuate up to 4,000 citizens stranded in a war-torn African country finally came to life.
During the night, three RAF flights arrived bringing about 240 people (mostly, but not all, British) from a deteriorating war zone to a resort island in the Mediterranean.
After the same day on New military planes arrived in Cyprus, London Stansted was overwhelmed with emotion as 170 of the first wave of evacuees completed the second leg of their journey on a government-chartered flight.
Father, Mohamed El-Amein, picked up his four- and six-year-old daughters as they exited the plane, hugging them with all their might.
Yasmine Abdullah, 21, wept openly as she hugged her mother, Susan El Faith, whom she feared she would never see again.
Telling people to go to the airport
Back in Cyprus, a high-ranking British diplomat sent a message to his compatriots in Sudan, who were still wondering whether to lay low or rush to the airport was clear: as long as the truce is in place, go ahead.
“I hope that several hundred people will pass through us today,” said Irfan Siddique.
Despite calling the situation on the ground in Wadi Saidna “unstable,” he said: “The latest agreement on the ceasefire seems to be holding up to some extent. That's why we tell people to drive to the airport if they can. We can't offer more.”
The Foreign Office has personally contacted 1,000 British citizens, just a small fraction of the total allegedly in the country.
However, Mr Siddiq said this was only part of an earlier phase of the operation and this has now been replaced by general travel advice.
He stressed that UK citizens do not need to be contacted or registered to be eligible to be evacuated by the Royal Air Force — they just needed to get to the airport with their passport.
Despite the horror that gripped the streets, the military escort of the British trying to reach the airfield was «impossible», he added.
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The scale of the problem facing the British authorities is enormous.
Approximately 2,000 Sudanese citizens have registered for evacuation, but this may be only half of the real number left.
While the UK may — at best — move up to 500 people a day, according to Brigadier General Dan Reeve, commander of joint forces operations, who confirmed that British ground forces on Wednesday took control of the runway from the German military. .
But no one knows how long it will last.
Sudanese arrive in the UK Bandits in the streets and bombs
According to Brigadier General Reeve, even while Sudanese families compared the situation to the popular video game, even while it is at the site of Call of Duty, «where the soldiers shoot at the target.»
Regardless of the factional clashes, the severity of the social crisis gripping Sudan becomes apparent: bandits roam the streets, and robberies are becoming more commonplace.
Speaking to the Telegraph at Stansted Airport, 15-year-old Mazen Abdullah said: “There were thugs in the streets. They threw sticks and stones, rocks. If you just try to walk past them, they'll throw rocks, try to break your windows.
“We've seen gas stations robbed, petrol, petrol, all that. They will steal it and then sell it. We just had to try to avoid it.”
He added: “We are staying in the capital, Khartoum. It was absolutely terrible. For several nights we couldn't even sleep because of the gunshots and bombs around us.»
Looming crisis on the Egyptian border
The riots have sparked warnings of a looming refugee crisis on the Egyptian border, as thousands of people seek refuge near the northern Sudan's neighbor.
Mohammed Gasim, a businessman from Khartoum who boarded a bus to the border with his family on Wednesday morning, said: «We have no choice — we have to get to Egypt.»
He added: “But our women and children will not leave without us. There are thousands of men with families who cannot leave. We need Egyptians to loosen these rules.”
Thousands of refugees from Khartoum, which has survived heavy fighting, have gathered in Wadi Halfa, the last Sudanese city before the Egyptian border.
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Egypt and Sudan have free travel for women and children, but men under the age of 50 require a visa to enter any of these countries.
Passengers fleeing from Sudan arrive at the Wadi Karkar bus station in Aswan, Egypt on Wednesday. Credit: STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Mr Gasim said visas were difficult to obtain and many families were already stuck for up to four days.
He and his family were among the thousands residents of Khartoum who last week sought asylum in Wad Madani, a city in the southeast.
Madani was not affected by the fighting, but he had power and water cuts. According to him, food and medicine began to run out in the city, because the supply chains from factories and warehouses in Khartoum were actually destroyed.
Wadi Halfa and Port Sudan on the Red Sea became the main points of departure for Sudanese and foreign refugees, seeking to leave by land. Both are located about 500 miles from the capital.
Difficulty getting out
Eyewitnesses say the price of a bus ticket has soared to hundreds of dollars per person.
On Wednesday, large crowds of Sudanese and foreigners waited in Port Sudan trying to register for a ferry to Saudi Arabia.
Dallia Abdelmoniem, a Sudanese political commentator, said she arrived with her family on Monday and was trying to get a seat every day, but «priority was given to foreign nationals.»
In response to the crisis, Home Secretary Swella Braverman appeared to rule out safe and legal routes to the UK. for refugees from Sudan in the style of schemes for refugees from Ukraine or Syria.
«We have no plans to do that,» she said on Tuesday. “Now we are primarily focused on supporting UK citizens and their dependents in a rapidly changing and challenging environment.”
Mohamed El-Amein came to Stansted to pick up his two daughters, Lujane, six, and Lamar, four, who go to school in Sudan. Flight ZT4820, operated by Smartwings, landed in the UK shortly after 2pm on Wednesday. Photo: Jamie Lorriman
As she spoke in Stansted, loved ones of the evacuees spoke of the horrors sweeping Sudan.
Haifa Mohamed, a doctor from Solihull, was waiting to pick up her sister, parents and four nieces and nephews.
She said: “There are people who have been killed in hospitals where you think it is safe, people who have been shot in their homes. There were people who were bombed in their own house. My friend died in her own house from a bomb explosion — the whole building burned down.
“Yesterday, a boy bombed the hospital car park, and I don’t know how many people died there.
“People didn’t have enough food, drink – people went to the Nile River to get water right from there. There has been no water for nine days and electricity has been cut in many areas.”
Mohamed El-Amein came to Stansted to pick up his two daughters, Loujain, six, and Lamar, four, who are leaving. to school in Sudan.
After hugging each of his daughters, he said that they had just finished their school holidays when the conflict broke out and a family friend accompanied the girls on the flight to the UK.
Consoling his daughters, he said: “They were very hard…our only option was to get them here to safety.”
Mr El-Amein said he did not recognize the chaos unfolding in his country: “I saw the videos. , many clips, and some stories… good country, good people… they are not to blame. War is not needed.
Evacuees, believed to be British citizens, arrive at Stansted Airport. Credit: REUTERS/Toby Melville WHO warns of more deaths
The World The health organization warned on Wednesday that more deaths are likely due to disease outbreaks and a lack of essential services.
Intense fighting has ravaged hospitals and halted food distribution in a country where a third of its 46 million people were already dependent on aid.
“In the capital, Khartoum, 61 percent of health facilities are closed and only 16 percent are operating as usual,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference at the headquarters of the UN health agency in Geneva.
Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had evacuated 1,674 people from 56 countries, as well as 13 of its own citizens from Sudan.
At Arkin Crossing, families spent the night in the desert waiting to be let into Egypt. Buses lined up.
Accusations of attacks on civilians
Both opposing sides are accused of mistreating civilians.
“At the moment, we are receiving reports that both sides are committing violations, including indiscriminate attacks, targeted attacks and attacks on humanitarian organizations,” said Abdullahi Hassan, an Amnesty International researcher reporting on Sudan. “We are also receiving reports that the RSF and associated militias are targeting civilians in Darfur.”
HMS Lancaster is heading to Port Sudan, a dock on the Red Sea that could be used in a maritime operation.
With British citizens ordered to travel to evacuation sites on their own, the long journey from Khartoum will be fraught with difficulty due to shortages fuel and queues of people running.
Annalena Burbock, German foreign minister, said Berlin would not leave civilians «to their own devices» after the evacuation was completed. Photo: John MACDOUGALL/AFP, said that Berlin would not leave civilians «to their fate» after the evacuation was completed.
She said that «unlike other countries» all German citizens participated in the evacuation of Germany, and not just the embassy staff that the UK was moved to safety on Sunday.
«We had to act quickly»
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, defending the move, said yesterday: «Embassy staff faced specific threats and we had to act quickly to get them to safety.»
«Together with the Foreign Minister and Minister of Defence, I am monitoring the situation and urging those who are eligible to respond,” he told The Telegraph, urging Britons who wanted to leave to head to the airstrip as soon as possible.
“The best thing for the security of the Sudanese people and British citizens in Sudan is an end to the violence and a transition to a civilian government. That is why we are looking all the way with the US and our other allies and supporting international mediation efforts through the UN to achieve this goal,” he said.
“This conflict is unstable and rapidly evolving, but we should all be proud of the efforts undertaken by our dedicated diplomats and brave military.”
About 160 British troops, including marines, have been sent to the airfield, but the security of the site is maintained by the Sudanese armed forces.
The military was ready to use force if the facility comes under attack, although officials said the troops were mostly there to help with logistics and provide air traffic control.
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Four more RAF flights were expected to leave the Wadi Saidna airstrip on Wednesday afternoon.
Despite the high ambitions of the British military and the Foreign Office, it is not clear how long the situation on the ground will last. will allow the airlift to continue.
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