Munzir Salman with 11-year-old Siddig (left), eight-year-old Shaden (middle) and six-year-old Yasmin (right) (Picture: PA)
A dad told his children they were playing a game of ‘hide and seek’ while they ducked for cover as their home was caught in the middle of a gunfight in Sudan.
Munzir Salman’s family was at home, in the capital of Khartoum, when two military groups who are currently at war started shooting at each other from either side of his house.
The 37-year-old said: ‘I was in the middle. It was horrendous and, unfortunately, it’s not the first time I’ve had gunshots around me.
‘I’m a single father of three kids so I had to stay calm for them. I had to tell them it was like a game and told them it was like a hide-and-seek game.
‘It was an experience they had never been through before, it was very scary but I tried to make it a game for them.
‘I explained the danger before trying to make it like Tom and Jerry where the people outside were Tom and we were Jerry.’
Munzir, a British-Sudanese builder with dual citizenship, told his story while waiting to fly to the UK via Cyprus.
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British nationals have faced dangerous journeys to the Wadi Saeedna airstrip in the hopes of being able to board an evacuation flight out of the country.
Eight flights were expected to have left by the end of Wednesday to lift people to safety as the military races against time to rescue citizens while a fragile ceasefire holds.
British nationals have faced dangerous journeys to the Wadi Saeedna airstrip in the hopes of being able to board an evacuation flight out of the country.
Eight flights were expected to have left by the end of Wednesday to lift people to safety as the military races against time to rescue citizens while a fragile ceasefire holds.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly told UK nationals on Tuesday that they must make their own way to the airstrip.
Munzir, whose wife died in 2020, had to take the trip with three children, 11-year-old Siddig, eight-year-old Shaden and six-year-old Yasmin.
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It was only 20 miles from the family’s house to the airstrip but the violence around them meant they travelled 60 miles to get there.
The dad added: ‘It was hard to explain to the children that it’s a dangerous journey.
‘The first part was that the RSF were trying to spot us as we travelled through neighbourhoods. They spotted us four times but because they saw I had children they let us go.’
The first British evacuees from Sudan touched down on home soil at Stansted Airport at around 2.24pm this afternoon after taking off from Cyprus this morning. Around 100 people were counted off the plane.
According to the government’s own estimates, there are at least 2,000 UK nationals in Sudan, though there have been suggestions the number could be above 4,000.
What you need to know about the war in Sudan
How did the war start?
The current fighting is the result of a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The paramilitary group, which was originally created by dictator Omar al-Bashir to crush a rebellion in the western region of Darfur, cooperated with the army to overthrow the autocrat in 2019.
This was supposed to precede Sudan’s transition to a democratic government, a move backed by western nations.
The north African country saw more than two years of power-sharing between the military and civilian leaders but a coup brought this to an end in October 2021.
Sudan was left with the army’s general, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, as Sudan’s de facto ruler and the RSF’s general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, as vice-president.
What sparked the recent escalation?
The Sudanese people and the international community continued to push for a new transition to democracy after the coup.
The plan was to get Sudan to a point where civilian parties would have control over the military, which the RSF would be dissolved into.
But there has long been tension surrounding the details of this arrangement, namely the proposed timeline – the army wanted the integration complete in two years but the RSF insisted on waiting 10.
Nevertheless, negotiations looked hopeful with a final deal due to be signed earlier this month, before a new phase of fighting broke out on April 15.
The army pointed the finger at the RSF for mobilising troops to key strategic sites in the capital of Khartoum and the RSF claimed it was just responding to the army’s alleged plot to seize full power with Bashir loyalists.
What now?
More than 420 people have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded since the conflict escalated, according to Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health.
Paramedics, frontline nurses and doctors have told the Wold Health Organisation they are often unable to reach the wounded because of attacks on ambulances and health facilities.
Some 20 hospitals are no longer functional and 12 others are at risk due to lack of medical supplies and health care workers.
Multiple countries, including the UK, are working on evacuation plans for its citizens with the Government promising to prioritise the vulnerable ‘starting with family groups with children, the elderly or people with documented medical conditions’.
World leaders have urged the two warring generals to de-escalate the violence and return to negotiations.
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The dad told his children the soldiers shooting outside were Tom and they had to hide because they were Jerry.