NHS doctors stranded in Sudan claim UK not giving enough support

Two doctors employed by the UK’s National Health Service said they missed the last flight out of Khartoum on Saturday because it was too dangerous to travel, and accused the UK of not giving them enough support.

Sudanese Irish doctor Mustafa Abbas, 44, and his 38-year-old Sudanese British wife Sarra Eljak are currently in Wad Madani, 220 km south of the capital, with their four children: Danya, 12, Menna, 11, Anne, seven, and Mohammed, six months. They are over 800 km from Port Sudan, from where they hope to catch a ship to Saudi Arabia.

Eljak told PA Media: “It’s extremely dangerous to reach the evacuation site (in Khartoum) and the area is still experiencing attacks.

“I can’t take this risk with my children. They (the UK government) should consider people with families. I don’t want to put my kids’ life in danger. I feel like we have been left without support.”

Eljak, from Slough in southeast England, said she had concerns about the “very long journey” to Port Sudan with her young children in tow.

“I came with my six-month-old baby who was born premature. He takes a certain type of formula milk and now I run out of this. This place where I’m staying right now, there is a pandemic of malaria.”

Abbas added: “As a father, it’s really difficult. Every minute of every day, (the children) ask you when we are going to leave. They say, ‘we are homesick, we miss our friends,’ and it’s difficult to give them any answers.

“The big countries are just leaving the military and militia to fight and kill innocent people. At the end of the day, we are all human and we should look after each other.”

The couple and their children were in Sudan to see out the holy month of Ramadan with family in Khartoum. They planned to leave on April 24 after celebrating Eid Al-Fitr.

Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out in the capital and elsewhere on April 15, forcing the family to flee to Wad Madani.

“All of a sudden, we just woke up hearing shooting guns and military helicopters everywhere,” Eljak told the Guardian. “Our front door was shot at and we found the bullets inside the house. At any point you have the sense that you are going to lose one of your family members.”

Eljak said she was worried about the effect the situation was having on her family.

“If they (the children) hear the bang of a closing door, they scream. They all went through different panic attacks. My oldest girl, Danya, refused to eat and drink for four days.

“Every one of my kids are saying if they arrive in the UK safely, they will never come back to Sudan. This makes a tear in my heart.”