Sudanese speak of narrow escapes from fighting only to face border ordeals

'There was just one official stamping passports and thousands of tired, hungry and sleep deprived men, women and children'

A Sudanese woman arrives at Karkar bus terminal near Aswan, southern Egypt after fleeing the fighting in her country. EPA

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Dressed in a yellowing white robe, an elderly man with a thin silver beard and a sun-kissed face slowly turns his head away and pauses when asked about his experience at the overland crossing between Sudan and Egypt.

“Al Ghareeb Adeeb,” or “the outsider is always polite,” he said in a faint voice before he smiled and fell silent again.

“Allah kareem!” or “God is generous,” he said seconds later.

Not every Sudanese who fled the fighting in Sudan between the army and a powerful paramilitary to find refuge in Egypt was as cautious or tactful as the elderly man was when it came to details of their journey to safety.

Many among them were happy, or perhaps frustrated enough, to recount the irony of how they escaped the artillery shelling, air strikes and gunfire in Khartoum only to face another ordeal when they thought they reached safety at the two overland crossings with Egypt: Argeen and Qastal.

They spoke of days of overcrowding, suffocating heat and of nights spent on an uncomfortable bus seat or out in the open. They recounted lack — or scarcity at best — of essential services like food, water and toilets.

Those who shared their accounts said they did not feel unwelcome or resented in Egypt. They complained of bureaucratic inefficiency that caused lengthy delays and made fatigue from their 12-hour journey from Khartoum much worse.

Egypt often prides itself on being home to nine million foreign nationals who escaped fighting or came to find a better life. Egypt says they never had to spend a single day at a camp outside cities, as is the case in other countries in the region.

Seven of the nine million are believed to be Sudanese, whose social, economic and cultural bonds with Egyptians date back centuries and run deep.

Cases of racism against Sudanese nationals in Egypt are not uncommon, but they are infrequent. Tens of thousands of Egyptians live in Sudan, which has had a large Egyptian Coptic Christian community since the 19th century.

Sudanese are welcomed by local volunteers on their arrival at Karkar bus terminal, located at a village by the same name some 15 kilometres outside the southern city of Aswan.

As soon as the bus pulls over at the Karkar terminal, volunteers recognisable by their blue or red tabards, hand passengers snacks and a bottle of cold water. They also give them local sim cards with enough credit to make a few local calls.

It is also the point from which Sudanese buses cannot go farther. Passengers disembarking there get on minibuses to Cairo, Aswan or elsewhere in Egypt.

Some Aswan residents are offering Sudanese families free accommodation.

“We have also enforced a fixed fare for the ride to Cairo because the drivers were getting too greedy,” said Mohammed Sidi, a volunteer from the nearby village of Karkar.

“Four hundred Egyptian pounds ($13) to Cairo and 20 pounds to Aswan are about right.”

A Sudanese banker who last week escaped the fighting in Khartoum’s twin city of Bahri arrived in Aswan this week with about 50 relatives, friends and neighbours.

The ride, he said, cost $15,000.

“We had four days of absolute hell on the Sudanese side,” he said.

“The Egyptian side was better organised, but appeared to be working on a minimum capacity, allowing busloads of Sudanese to pile up by the dozens on the other side and only allowing two to four buses at a time to cross into the Egyptian side.”

The banker, who did not want to be named, spoke to The National at a hotel in a Nubian village near Aswan where he and 16 family members stayed.

On Sunday morning, he, his family and some relatives left for Cairo, a 12-hour ride and 1,000 kilometres to the north.

He complained that the Sudanese side of the border at the Argeen crossing, about 350 kilometres south of Aswan, frequently ran out of drinking water and had little food for the thousands there.

His account was corroborated by other Sudanese.

It was Argeen that met the initial rush of Sudanese refugees escaping to Egypt, but it was quiet on Sunday except for a handful of reporters and western relief workers. Egyptian army troops backed by armoured personnel carriers guarded the crossing.

Traffic from Sudan to Argeen was directed to Qastal at the weekend, according to security officials.

Back in the Karkar bus terminal, Sudanese refugees spoke of how they waited for a day or two at Argeen before they were directed to Qastal, also known as Ashkeet.

“At Argeen, women and men shared a mosque washroom,” said Mohammed Othman, 27, from Khartoum, who arrived in Egypt on Saturday.

“At the Egyptian side, there were two toilets, but there was such a huge demand on them that many preferred to relieve themselves in the desert,” he said.

“I stood for nine hours in a packed room waiting to be given back my passport,” he said.

A video he took with his mobile showed a bare room with paint peeling from the walls and men and women standing shoulder-to-shoulder waiting to be given back their passports so they could enter Egypt.

“There was just one official stamping passports and another entering data in a computer. Just those two and we were thousands of men, women and children. All tired, hungry and sleep deprived,” he said.

His sister Mariam, who arrived on Sunday through Qastal, was just as unhappy. She said she spent the night in her bus seat on the Sudanese border town of Wadi Halfa.

They spoke to The National while sharing the passenger seat of a minibus taking them to Aswan.

Nazar Al Tigany, a telecoms engineer from Khartoum, drove his SUV to Egypt with his wife and daughter. It took them six days to complete the journey, having stopped in two northern Sudanese towns between Khartoum and Egypt.

“I have plenty of contacts across Sudan because of my job, so my journey was fairly comfortable, except for when I arrived at Qastal. It took the Egyptian authorities 20 hours to process my car documents,” he told The National at a roadside cafe near Abu Simbel, home to one of the most majestic ancient Egyptian temples.

The fighting in Sudan broke out on April 15 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting is mainly in Khartoum and the western region of Darfur.

The Sudan Doctors’ Union said at the weekend that 425 civilians were killed and 2,091 wounded so far in the fighting. The Sudanese Health Ministry on Saturday estimated the overall death toll, including fighters, at 528, with 4,500 wounded.

The UN believes the death toll could be much higher in reality.

Besides Egypt, Sudanese are also fleeing to neighbouring Ethiopia, Chad and Republic of Central Africa.

Most of those who remain in Khartoum are unable to leave their homes and are struggling with dwindling supplies and no power or water.

A series of ceasefires have been announced and agreed to by the two warring sides, but breaches have been common with each side blaming the other for the violations.