Fleeing Sudanese families in real trouble

The temporary lull in the fighting that has flared up between Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the militia, and the Sudanese military which broke out on April 15 and plunged Sudan into a civil war has been used by most of the foreign missions in Khartoum to evacuate their staff and families through military planes. The countries included the United States and Russia, Belgium and Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

But the Sudanese citizens caught in the crossfire between the two warring groups do not have much choice. They either have to flee Khartoum and go to villages and other cities which are not yet caught in the violence, but it is not certain whether fighting will spread to the rest of Sudan or not. A family that has managed to flee from Khartoum to reach the border at Egypt, and cross over to reach Aswan and then to Cairo had a nail-biting tale to tell. They hired a bus to reach the Egyptian border and there were 50 family members. They were able to pass through the checkpoints manned both by the RSF and the Sudanese military because there was ceasefire, and the guards found nothing suspicious in a large family with women, children and old people. But when they reached the Egyptian border at 2am after leaving Khartoum at 10 am, the women, children and the older people were allowed to cross into Egypt at the border because they do not require any papers as per Egypt-Sudan agreement. But men between 18 and 49 have to obtain a visa and that would take time, and it may not be an easy thing as the number of Sudanese wanting to leave Sudan and enter Egypt increases because of the civil war.

But Sudanese men between the ages of 18 and 49 but who hold foreign passports from Britain, Ireland and other countries are allowed into Egypt without further scrutiny of papers. It is the Sudanese male adults without the double passport who get stranded at the airport. The Sudanese family that left Khartoum and managed to cross over into Egypt and from Aswan undertook a 14-hour train journey to Cairo had managed to hire a flat and they are now waiting for the male adults in the family to join. The flight of Sudanese from their country as well as the emergency evacuation of foreign nationals in Khartoum is a clear indication that the situation in Khartoum has worsened, and that the RSF and Sudanese military have not found a way to reach a peace accord among themselves. The Sudanese army wants the RSF to disband itself, a shift from the earlier agreement when the RSF was to integrate itself with the army.

The RSF is a militia and not an institutionalised national army, and the codes of the two differ widely. The army has hierarchy, it has training programmes and it follows the orders of the top general. Secondly, militias by nature are armed groups with a political agenda. So, the RSF is not likely to abandon its political ambition and melt away into civil society.

The Sudanese army wants to rein in the RSF because of its political role, and the RSF would not want to give up its political stakes. Even as the two forces are set to fight it out, it is the ordinary Sudanese who have to pay the price of war. The Sudanese who are able to escape to neighbouring countries like Egypt are people with some money. But there are thousands who cannot flee Sudan because they do not have the means to do. They are caught in the nightmare of a civil war.