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Montasir Ismail, who lives in Kerry and studied medicine in Khartoum, was forced to flee the area where he lived.
On Sunday, Montasier, his brother and their mother decided they had to flee the country to be safe. They arranged to leave the country by bus and arrived safely in Aswan, Egypt yesterday.
He told RTÉ Radio 1 that clashes nearby and an explosion in a house made him realize they had to leave.
“Fortunately, we got the rice before everything happened; we can only live off the rice,” he said.
“We don’t have power; we don’t have water. It’s just a real-life nightmare, a nightmare come true.
“We found ourselves with very little supplies and everything was getting closer to our community; we knew people who had been affected by the conflict and the gunfire. Everything was getting closer.”
They received news from the Irish Consulate that the Irish citizens were about to be evacuated, but Montasier and his family did not see the news in time.
Another problem they face is the blocked routes to evacuation points.
“We took matters into our own hands so that we could find a way. I’ve heard of some people traveling to Egypt by bus,” he said.
“It took me three days. I moved from Omdurman on Sunday and just arrived in Aswan three hours ago.
“Thankfully, because of the increase in the number of people going there, the process has been very smooth. There is a backlog of people. There are at least nine or 10 buses running at a time. Each bus consists of 50 people.”
Due to the temperature outside and the journey through the desert, the buses were overcrowded and their water was “smoldering,” Montaseer said.
Their next move will involve traveling to Cairo and booking a flight back to Ireland.
Meanwhile, Noon Abdellatif (17) has not heard from her mother Hannah Abdellatif and her five-year-old sister since Monday.
Hannah and her daughter were traveling to Sudan for a family wedding and were stranded there after fighting broke out on April 15.
On Saturday, Hannah and her extended family decided to leave Khartoum for the border.
“The last time I had contact with my mother was at 8am on Monday and she texted that they had reached the border after the bus broke down and there were more than 80 buses at the border,” Noon said.
“She said they didn’t know if anyone else in the family would be admitted or rejected. She said she would likely be camping at the border for more than two days.
“My mother was trying to wait until the Irish embassy issued a statement about the evacuation of Irish citizens, but the danger was so close to their house, they could hear explosions, gunshots and nearby houses collapsing. They were almost forced to leave their home .”
Noon’s family lives in Omdurman, Sudan, where a bridge over the Nile was blown up and collapsed. This left Noon’s family with only one way out.
“They escaped in the dead of night around 4 or 5 in the morning, they organized a bus with several other local citizens who were trying to evacuate, they traveled from that Saturday until Monday, and they reached the border …we still don’t know if they made it into Egypt.
“There were several times when the bus broke down and they were stranded in a barren and desolate desert area with no food or water. It was a very scary situation for them, especially with many children traveling with them.
“Personally, my sister, she’s five years old, and you just hope that the innocence of childhood will protect her from the horrors of her current situation.”
You don’t know if the bus will break down, the dangers in the desert, heat stroke.You can’t guarantee any kind of security at all
Noon, who lives with her father in Mullingar, Westmeath, has been in contact with the Irish embassy by email over the past few weeks since the conflict broke out.
“Just before they issued the Irish evacuation statement, the email we received just repeated the advice from the Foreign Office that Irish citizens stay indoors and abide by local restrictions,” she said.
“There wasn’t much help in that regard and it’s disappointing that my mother had to be forced to leave and evacuate herself when the Irish government could have easily notified their plans in greater detail in advance.
“I think they should have informed people ahead of time that they plan to email people before then because it would save a lot of people the travel, money and physical activity across the desert.
“Trying to escape by bus is inherently dangerous, you don’t know if you’re going to be stopped by the RSF or the military. You don’t know if the bus is going to break down, there’s danger in the desert, heat stroke. You can’t guarantee any type of safety at all.
“Bus tickets are ridiculously expensive and people have been fleeing the country because of the dire need of people. A lot of people are traveling with empty pockets now, they’ve spent all their money on buses, they’ve been traveling as families.
“They don’t know if they will be able to afford accommodation, food or water when they arrive in Egypt, they just want the safety of the actual country itself.”
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