Khartoum – The Sudanese army announced yesterday that a joint group of the army and the intelligence service managed to evacuate 5 nuns, a priest and about 20 South Sudanese nationals after they were subjected to a harsh siege southwest of Khartoum that lasted for more than 15 months, during which attempts were made to liquidate them by what the army called the Rapid Support Militia.
According to a statement by the Sudanese army, the evacuated group belongs to the Italian Catholic Salesian Association, and remained stuck in the Al-Shajara area southwest of Khartoum. Their home is part of an educational service project, which is a complex that includes a nursery and an elementary school, and the complex is known as Dar Maryam.
But who were they? Why were they subjected to all kinds of suffering? And how did they go out in an operation in the dead of night?
Southwest of Khartoum lies a modest and elegant church building, where 5 nuns of different nationalities work and which is supervised by Jacob Telikadan, an Indian priest who spent about 40 years in Sudan, coming from the gateway of South Sudan.
Here also is Teresa Rochowska (69 years old), a nun from Poland who speaks about 4 languages, but has dedicated herself to volunteer work, and two nuns from the Khairullah region in India who are the last to join Dar Maryam in 2022, the fourth from India and the fifth from an Asian country who apologized for speaking and remained silent. Her sisters say that she was subjected to a severe psychological shock and preferred to isolate herself.
Alongside them was Chan Mayom, a young man in his thirties from South Sudan, who did administrative work and translation when necessary.
Before the war, Dar Maryam supervised the care of about 70 children, most of them from South Sudan, and some of them were orphans, but the services of the home expanded after the outbreak of the war in April 2023, when it became a destination for some civilians who were stranded after the sound of gunfire increased.
Here, they shared with the people of the house the available food, water, and a window of communication via the Starlink device linked to the satellite at a time when all communication networks in Sudan were cut off.
“On November 3 of last year, we had become accustomed to the sounds of bullets and their directions,” recalls the Polish nun Teresa, who is crawling towards her seventies and moving with a cane. “It was night time and we were not allowed to use the light produced by a solar-powered device attached to the building. We moved around using the light of a small phone, all for fear of being bombed, especially since our house was next to the Sudanese army’s ammunition depot. The sound of bullets increased and I was in the bathroom at the time. I ran out and discovered that this time the bombardment had included our small house. I looked for my family and found the little boy Daniel bleeding. He had been hit by shrapnel.”
According to Teresa, the bombing attempt was repeated a second time and the bullets hit a nearby school, but Teresa refuses to accuse a specific party and says that she does not want to get involved in politics.
But an army statement accused the Rapid Support Forces of being responsible, while another source in the ammunition corps went on to recount the details, revealing that a member of the Rapid Support Forces tried to storm the house at night while drunk and was arrested after causing panic among the nuns.
After these developments, the monk Jacob Telikadan and the five nuns thought about leaving, as the bombing was not the only threat, as water and electricity services were cut off, and then communications. The other Teresa (Indian Teresa Joseph, 73 years old) says, “At these moments, we were cut off from the world. Life became a piece of hell.”
Here a discussion took place between a number of parties about the fate of the nuns who were determined to continue their mission, as Teresa of Poland said, “We are supposed to be with people in moments of suffering, and we have families and children with us. Who do we leave them to?”
The Sudanese intelligence service feared paying a heavy price if the bad scenario happened to the nuns and Father Jacob, as they were guests in the country and fair witnesses to the details of the war and the assault on civilians. The authorities provided them with supplies, dug a well for them, and allowed them to use a Starlink device linked to the satellite.
After Dar Maryam was bombed, the Catholic Church began to worry about its parishioners in a distant country surrounded by dangers. Starting in December of last year, coordination took place through the Red Cross between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, and an agreement was reached to evacuate the Dar Maryam group. Indeed, the first group left, but their convoy was subjected to gunfire, the responsibility for which was divided between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces. However, the result was a return to the old home in the bosom of the White Nile.
Returning to Dar Maryam required the Sudanese army to provide protection for them, especially after the group insisted on staying, persevering, and continuing to help people. However, Father Jacob says that after the war had dragged on and his health problems and those of all the elderly nuns had increased, they thought about leaving to get some rest and medical care, then returning to the field of humanitarian work.
Sister Teresa added that the decision was difficult for them, but the situation was arranged so that a Sudanese woman and volunteers would continue the mission, especially since the residents of the home refused to leave and decided to stay.
The consensus was reached to evacuate those who wanted to and leave those who preferred to stay, an equation acceptable to all parties. The Catholic Church increased its communication with all stakeholders in Sudanese affairs to avoid any stray bullet. Many options were reviewed by the army and intelligence team to evacuate the group, which numbered more than 30 individuals. Zero hour was not known to any of the group members, and Teresa said, “We did not know the details. We only knew that the mission required the moon to be hidden, but we had confidence in the men who were managing the matter,” referring to the military group.
On July 28, all arrangements were completed at around 10:30 p.m., Teresa says, “We moved in groups towards the White Nile shore. This meant that the path was different this time. The condition of the moon’s disappearance was met, and the White Nile was calm, as if it wanted to honor us. They took me in a hurry because of the darkness. I could not make out their features. I felt terrified. Any bullet in the sky could have ruined all the efforts. We were asked to be silent. The boat moved without using the engine until it reached a far distance in the depths of the river. The trip took about an hour, which, given the surrounding circumstances, was a long time. On many occasions, the boat’s engine was turned off and our armed companions looked around.”
“We took a deep breath after arriving at the western bank of the Nile. There was a car parked on the side of the river. We were quickly taken to another, larger car that was waiting for us,” Teresa said. Teresa and her friends could not believe it when they saw the light of day in Omdurman. Here, there is life, safety, and people moving around. It is unbelievable for someone who has lived in fear for more than 500 days.
The survivors were taken to a church safe house in Omdurman, where they received initial medical care and appropriate medication, before being given the opportunity to tell their story to the media.
On Tuesday evening, the group left Dar Maryam on their way to Port Sudan. The group dispersed, but with the dream of returning.
The four Indian nuns will return to India, as will their companion Jacob, while Teresa, the Polish who lost her passport, will arrange her own affairs with the Sudanese authorities and her country’s embassy in Cairo. However, all the nuns and Father Jacob promise the Sudanese people to return to the country they have known and loved. But will this promise be fulfilled while the daily war continues in Sudan? A war that Jacob, who has witnessed many wars, says differs from others in the severity of the destruction of facilities and the targeting of citizens’ property.
Source: Al Jazeera
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2024-08-10 02:49:20
