The beginning of the third week of the gruesome war on Khartoum and Sudan has left many Sudanese both fearful, sadden and exhausted by the physical fight of political power playing out in front of civilians between the Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces. People are still being evacuated from Port Sudan on the Red Sea by Saudi Arabia. The United States has finally started evacuating thousands of American citizens who trapped under the bombing in Khartoum. Left behind by the US Embassy and ignored by the State Department, Sudanese Americans were in similiar limbo to the American citizens left behind in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over Kabul and the dejavu was not lost on the State Department. The US begrudingly decided not to evacuate its own citizens a week ago when other countries such as France, Canada and Qatar were evacuating their citizens and non citizens alike. American diplomats were evacuated first since diplomats are prioritzed over regular citizens. Britain followed a near identitical pattern as the US in taking diplomats out of Khartoum first but than going back and evacuating British citizens and other nations. The RAF just finished evacuating the last of its citizens via the Sadena Airbase outside Khartoum a few days ago. Turkish pilots were shot at by RSF forces while evacuating Turkish citizens who were still trapped in the city but miracously the pilots and passengers were not injured and were able to take off. The United Nations and Medicins san Frontiers (MSF) declared that Sudan was facing a humanitarian diaster that could get worst the longer the war continues. Medical aid and supplies from Jordan are arriving via Port Sudan to be delivered to Khartoum and other areas where medical care is urgently needed. The United States and Saudi Arabia have been trying to bring the RSF and Sudanese Army to the negotiating table to end the war, create a permanent ceasefire and address their grievances. The ordinary Sudanese in Khartoum and across the country do not want to end up like Libya or Syria or Ethiopia's Tigray region that finally ended last year after two years of war that devastated the Tigray region and sent hundreds of Tigray refugees to Sudan. And on Ethiopia, some 6000 people from 40+ countries have arrived in Eastern Ethiopia in the small border town of Metamma.
Back on the Argeen Sudanese/Egyptian land border station, thousands of Sudanese, Egyptians and other nationalities are still facing a hellish and grueling visa and passport process by Egyptian authorities. Buses carrying hundreds of fleeing Khartoum residents with families have also been jammed at the border for days. Sudanese speaking with the Egyptian and international media have been asking why urgent humanitarian refugee aid has been extremely slow compared to the near instant action in help given to Ukrainian refugees when the war in Ukraine broke out a year ago. The United Nations, most likely embarrased by the slow response compared to other refugee crisises, has finally sent humanitarian workers and response to aid Sudanese stuck on the border. The Internaitonal Red Cross and Crescent has also been trying their best to help Sudanese at the border. Egyptian media and reporters have been providing coverage of the Sudanese refugee arrivals for a few days as well also questioning why help has been so slow. Ordinary Egyptian citizens in Aswan, Cairo and other Egyptian cities have opened their houses and hearts to their Sudanese neighbors. Sudanese men between the ages of 18-49 usually the universal age fighting men have been told to go all the way to second border outside the Northern most Sudanese town Wadi Halfa to be process. The Egyptian border guards say they are scruntizing men to make sure that possible soldiers aren't sneaking into Egypt among the civilians. This was the same complaint and alarm bells that European MPs raised when Syrian refugees and other migrants were arriving into Europe continously in 2015 and until today. That ISIS or other terrorist members could be hiding among the thousands of ordinary refugees. It's still a fear mongering tactics that politicians and even analysts use to scare the public away from emphasizing and aiding refugees coming to Europe. Sudanese are still rushing to the border and staying in Wadi Halfa to await the opening of border processing.
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