Cape Town - Worried families waited with bated breath on Monday after a perilous evacuation to get stranded South African expatriates and other foreign nationals out of Sudan’s war-ridden capital Khartoum.
The joint-evacuation operation was planned by various government departments, the SANDF, DIRCO, Gift of the Givers (GOTG), Intelligence Services, SSA personnel and South Africans.
GOTG founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said unfortunately some South Africans had missed the two buses which transported the evacuation group to the Egyptian border on Monday from where they would head to the airport.
This was due to communication issues, network connectivity, lack of transport, and inaccessible areas.
About 77 South Africans were counted as stranded amid the violent power struggle that broke out in Khartoum on April 15 between the two warring generals of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Army, who seized power in a 2021 coup.
The war in Sudan rages on, with over 400 people dead.
The evacuation operation saw 38 South Africans (including all the diplomatic staff) and 7 Angolans depart from Khartoum to Egypt yesterday in buses arranged by the Sudanese company Good Transporter. The buses were paid for by the SA Government.
“The challenges on the ground were numerous including inaccessibility, collapsing networks, no airtime, electricity cut off, fuel shortage, no money, lack of food and water and then the emotional and psychological trauma of all out war as South Africans tried to move across barriers and front lines to "safer" zones, some witnessing over 70 bodies in the street, destroyed buildings and infrastructure, watching young people being shot and simply calling it Amargeddon,” Sooliman said.
Sooliman said some of the 77 had already left for Port Sudan, South Sudan and Djibouti with the companies or embassies they worked for; two opted to stay in Khartoum; and some said they would make their own way.
“Just after midnight on Sunday the network collapsed completely and by the time the buses were en route to Cairo it was discovered that 4 South Africans did not make it to the pick up point.”
GOTG managed to arrange a third bus for the 4 South Africans and two dogs left behind, as well as other foreign nationals in need of transport out of Sudan. The bus will depart around noon today.
Arranging this was a significant challenge as the bus company initially would only accept cash payment but no transaction could be done as the entire financial system had collapsed, with no functional government.
“Our Middle East representative who lives in Turkey called the bus company and he was able to arrange another bus for today, without immediate payment,” Sooliman said.
Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) spokesperson Clayson Monyela said this operation was delicate as the convoy had limited options of exiting Khartoum. Sudan’s capital city was effectively a no-fly zone after the airport was damaged and closed down.
Despite the mass of evacuations taking place, Monyela said all routes out of Khartoum remained risky and dangerous as the fighting had not stopped.
“We want to get all South Africans, as well as nationals from neighbouring countries and SADC who reached out to us, out of Khartoum,” Monyela said.
In reaction to the backlash the government was receiving for its “delayed” evacuation, Monyela said that South Africa could have done the same as other countries who managed to evacuate their diplomatic personnel earlier, and just focused on evacuating the SA embassy staff, but they wanted to get all SA nationals to safety.
Ryan Cummings, director at Signal Risk, co-founder of MyTravelRisk and senior associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), added that “it was missed how dangerous evacuation is at the moment”.
“Imagine the backlash if Dirco evacuated South Africans who ended up being wounded or even killed in the process,” Cummings said.
GOTG said there has been intense behind the scenes diplomatic engagements with various governments, including with the US Consul General late Monday night for citizens to enter various countries unhindered as many don't have passports or entry visas.