2023-06-23 00:01:40
Reunited, Al-Safi Mahdi, separated from his wife and three young children, on the first of June, near the Sudanese border with Egypt. He does not know when he will see them once more.
Mahdi, a music teacher and prominent bandleader, left home without a required visa to enter Egypt, like many families who left Khartoum to escape the war.
Both of his two eldest sons, one aged 19 and the other 17, had to renew their passports, a task made impossible as the conflict paralyzed central government offices.
Mahdi and his two eldest sons returned to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, while the rest of the family headed north to Cairo.
The family had decided to leave Bahri, which is part of the capital of Greater Sudan, following hearing heavy air strikes from their home.
Mahdi said he was very close to his young children and that they did not accept the idea of him leaving. He added that he told them that he would join them in two or three days in Egypt, but he knew it was not easy and would take a long time.
More than 2.5 million people have left their homes due to the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces that broke out on April 15, and among those displaced, regarding 600,000 have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
More than 250,000 crossed into Egypt, which began requiring all Sudanese, on June 10, to obtain entry visas.
Before that, the Egyptian authorities were only requesting visas from men between the ages of 16 and 50, which means that many women, children and the elderly entered the country while men stayed in the northern Sudanese town of Wadi Halfa waiting for days or weeks to apply for visas in Egyptian consulate.
On June 13, the United Nations said that some 12,000 displaced families were residing in Wadi Halfa. Witnesses say that some of those who arrived in the town have recently withdrawn to larger towns and cities in northern Sudan, hoping to change the rules to allow easier access for refugees.
The new Egyptian rules for visas have been applied to refugee women and the elderly. Saadiya Abdullah, 80, who suffers from chronic health problems, said she left Khartoum before the new rules were imposed.
In a phone call to Archyde.com from Wadi Halfa, last week, before traveling regarding 900 km to the city of Kassala in eastern Sudan to wait for another opportunity to cross, Saadia expressed her dissatisfaction with being prevented from entering Egypt, because she is sick and there is no treatment available for her in Sudan.
Egypt says it implemented the new visa rules to counter “illegal activities”. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request inquiring regarding the two types of these activities and how they relate to women, children and the elderly.
The United Nations has appealed to Sudan’s neighboring countries to keep their borders open.
The United Nations World Food Program said this week that it had opened a humanitarian corridor to deliver food from southern Egypt to Wadi Halfa.
The hope of catching up with the family in Egypt still haunts the imagination of some tent residents in Wadi Halfa. Among them is Nader Ismail, 48, who said he has been living in Wadi Halfa with his eldest son for six weeks.
Ismail said that the living conditions in the tents are difficult in light of the high temperatures, and that his only hope is to obtain a visa so that he can be reunited with the rest of the family once more.
Sohair Siddig Ali, Mahdi’s wife, said as she crossed into Egypt with her three young children following a long and difficult journey, Egypt was the only country open to them.
She added that she might do nothing but wait for the rest of the family to catch up.
She said she spoke to them on the phone every day, but it was hard for them.
Since mid-April, battles have been taking place between the Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hamidti”, which have left more than two thousand dead, according to estimates that experts believe are much less than reality.
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