Concern's Sudan director describes 'difficult' 34-hour journey out of Khartoum

Vivienne Clarke

Aid agency Concern’s country director in Sudan, AKM Musha, has told of the difficulties experienced by a convoy in which he travelled from Khartoum to Port Sudan.

Two of his Irish colleagues made the “difficult” journey with him, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, adding: “When we got the opportunity we moved out of Khartoum”.

People were running for their lives, he said, and have left everything behind. Life in Khartoum now is horrendous, with fighting going on day and night.

He explained hospitals and banks are not open, adding there are now food shortages in effected areas.

The convoy taking them from Khartoum, which included 80 vehicles and hundreds of people, took 34 hours to make the journey, which he described as a “terrifying and horrible experience”.

“If one car got a flat tyre, all the convoy stopped. It was very hard on the children and older people,” he said.

Mr Musha added that even before the current hostilities, millions of people in Sudan had needed humanitarian support. Aid organisations like Concern had been working there trying to improve the situation and had seen the suffering increasing, he said.

Concern has now suspended operations in Sudan, which is going to make people’s lives even more difficult, Mr Musha said. However, he noted aid organisations simply could not operate in such a hostile and dangerous situation.

He said the hostilities need to stop in order to allow aid organisations to resume their support for millions of people.