'One of the lucky ones': Toronto resident shares story of evacuation from war-torn Sudan
CTV
Long-time Toronto resident Azza Ahmed never imagined in her life that she’d be caught in the middle of a war zone, but that’s exactly what happened when she visited family in Sudan last month.
Long-time Toronto resident Azza Ahmed never imagined in her life that she’d be caught in the middle of a war zone, but that’s exactly what happened when she visited family in Sudan last month.
On April 8, Ahmed, who is 36, and her 74-year-old mother, Salma Sarour, arrived in their homeland for what was supposed to be a four-week visit. It was their first time back in Sudan since the pandemic.
However, just one week after they got there, on April 15, a violent conflict erupted between the northeast African nation’s military and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces. Most of the fighting has been centered on Sudan’s capital of Khartoum.
“We woke up to the news that there had been a coup attempt and literally half an hour later we heard bombs,” said Ahmed, who was staying with relatives at a family home in the city of Omdurman, which is roughly 15 kilometres northwest of Khartoum.
“It was insane. Never in my life did I think I’d be in a war. It was the first time I’d even experienced such a conflict.”
During an interview with CP24.com late last week from her home in Scarborough, Ahmed said that she and her mother along with an elderly aunt, who is also a Canadian citizen, and a number of other family members found themselves in an especially precarious situation as the house where they were staying is near a television station, which she said was likely to be one of the first places the rebels would bomb in an effort to gain control of the country. Airports are also often targeted, she noted.
“We couldn’t even go outside to the front or back yard,” she said.
