Sudan: Irish mother who escaped with her children ‘heartbroken’ as husband left behind
An Irish woman has described her dramatic escape from Sudan with her children as gunfire erupted around them – and has been left “heartbroken” as her husband remains in the country.
Mother-of-three Sarah Widaa told Sky News that she was given just over an hour’s notice to get to the French embassy for an evacuation.
She and her children were airlifted out of Sudan and arrived in Djibouti on Monday morning.
Britons among dozens of people rescued on Saudi ship – Sudan latest
Describing her escape, Ms Widaa said her husband drove the family from their home in the Kafouri area of Sudan’s capital Khartoum and on the way there was “gunfire” as she told her children in the car “to duck, get down on the floor”.
“I was afraid,” she said.
Ms Widaa said when she got to the embassy, the French “went above and beyond”.
“I felt safer,” she said. “They were armed. We were in the buses for over an hour. We left for the airbase.
“We stayed in the hangar for two hours. There was no food. There are Greeks there, Americans.”
Amid the fighting, the water supply at their home had been cut off for five days and they had to instead get it from the black market.
“We didn’t have a lot of money at home, we were worried we would get looted,” Ms Widaa said.
“It was really difficult. There’s a lot of Irish citizens still in Sudan.”
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Sudan: Who awaits evacuation?
Ms Widaa said her husband did not join them in the evacuation as he stayed to care for his father who has diabetes and is on medication.
She said she was “heartbroken” to leave them behind and asked that when her father-in-law’s medication runs out “what is he going to do?”
‘Everyone is getting desperate’
Ms Widaa said her cousin did not receive an email about the evacuation and instead went by bus to the Egyptian border, with the vehicle breaking down three times along the way.
She said the border was “crazy” with “quite a lot of Sudanese trying to get in”.
“Everyone is getting desperate,” she added.
Describing the scene she left behind in Kafouri, Ms Widaa said the day before the violence started she took her children to get ice-creams.
“Everyone was out. The same area is now pitch black,” she added.
Buildings were burnt and cars with bullets were in the middle of the street, she said.
Ms Widaa said she hopes she can go back to her home, adding: “I have my house there. My kids have friends there, school there. We were happy.”
Nadine is one of Sarah Widaa’s children
Ms Widaa’s eldest daughter, Nadine, aged nine, told Sky News that it was “scary” living in the Sudanese capital during the fighting.
She said: “We had to sleep on the floor and we’re scared of bullets coming in.
“We were watching TV and a bullet hit our window, it was so loud. I was shaking until the end of the day.”
Irish teacher says ‘shooting didn’t stop for five days’
Another Irish national, called Cathy, was also among those to be safely evacuated.
The teacher, who has two sons, lives on a school campus and said the shooting “didn’t stop for five days”.
Cathy spoke to Sky News
She said: “Our window exploded. We were under the mattress. Liam [one of her sons] said: ‘Mummy the glass hit me. It just bounced off me’.”
Cathy said she and her family managed to sneak out of the school and they eventually made it to a safe place where they were then taken to a friend’s house before being airlifted.
Read more:
UK troops fly to Sudan as govt works on evacuation plan for Britons
Why evacuating civilians is different to extracting diplomats
Which countries have evacuated their citizens?
Trapped doctor tells of ‘war zone’
Meanwhile, an NHS doctor trapped in Sudan has said he is living an “absolute nightmare” but has still had no contact with the Foreign Office.
Speaking to Sky News’s Mark Austin, Dr Ahmed said he had been working in the NHS for three years and had gone home to visit his loved ones.
After the fighting broke out, he moved his family a few kilometres south of Khartoum but still did not feel safe.
He said: “The whole capital [has] become a war zone. Even considering moving out of the capital is very dangerous as well. So it is absolutely a difficult time and a stressful time.”
Dr Ahmed said there was little access to water, electricity and healthcare with violence getting closer to where he was sheltering.
Dr Ahmed also criticised the UK government, saying: “I don’t think we’ve had enough attention. They just take the diplomats out. But there are other people. We deserve more attention from them.”
Bob Geldof has accused the Israeli authorities of “lying” about starvation in Gaza – after Israel’s government spokesperson claimed there was “no famine caused by Israel”.
Earlier this week, David Mencer claimed that Hamas “starves its own people” while on The News Hour with Mark Austin, denying that Israel was responsible for mass hunger in Gaza.
Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Geldof said the claims are false.
Follow latest: Gaza aid airdrops a ‘smokescreen’ and ‘distraction’, says UN agency chief
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Israel challenged on starvation in Gaza
Mr Phillips asked the Live Aid organiser: “The Israeli view is that there is no famine caused by Israel, there’s a manmade shortage, but it’s been engineered by Hamas.
“I guess the Israelis would say we don’t see much criticism from your side of Hamas.”
In response, Geldof said “that’s a false equivalence” and “the Israeli authorities are lying”.
The singer then added: “They’re lying. [Benjamin] Netanyahu lies, is a liar. The IDF are lying. They’re dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers.
“And while they arrive to accept the tiny amount of food that this sort of set up pantomime outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Front, I would call it, as they dangle it, then they’re shot wantonly.
“This month, up to now, a thousand children or a thousand people have died of starvation. I’m really not interested in what either of these sides are saying.”
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Gaza: ‘This is man-made starvation’
In the interview with Mark Austin on 23 July, Mr Mencer added: “This suffering exists because Hamas made it so. Here are the facts. Aid is flowing, through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Millions of meals are being delivered directly to civilians.” He also claimed that since May more than 4,400 aid trucks had entered Gaza carrying supplies.
It comes after MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished.
The charity said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels, and said that at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks.
MSF then called the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.
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Aid waiting to be distributed in Gaza
In a statement to Sky News, an Israeli security official said that “despite the false claims that are being spread, the State of Israel does not limit the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip”.
Read more:
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Surgeon claims IDF ‘deliberately’ shooting boys at Gaza aid points
Security shot at Palestinians at Gaza aid centre – ex-guard
It then blamed other groups for issues delivering aid. They said: “Over the past month, we have witnessed a significant decline in the collection of aid from the crossings into the Gaza Strip by international aid organisations.
“The delays in collection by the UN and international organisations harm the situation and the food security of Gaza’s residents.”
The IDF also told Sky News: “The IDF allows the American civilian organisation (GHF) to distribute aid to Gaza residents independently, and operates in proximity to the new distribution zones to enable the distribution alongside the continuation of IDF operational activities in the Gaza Strip.
“Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted in the Southern Command and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned.
“The aforementioned incidents are under review by the competent authorities in the IDF.”
You can watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips at 8.30am tomorrow.
World
25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK
A charity has warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, with Sir Keir Starmer vowing to evacuate children who need “critical medical assistance” to the UK.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels – with patients and healthcare workers both fighting to survive.
It claimed that, at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks – and described the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.
Pic: Reuters
The charity also criticised the high number of fatalities seen at aid distribution sites, with one British surgeon accusing IDF soldiers of shooting civilians “almost like a game of target practice”.
MSF’s deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, said: “Those who go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food distributions know that they have the same chance of receiving a sack of flour as they do of leaving with a bullet in their head.”
The UN also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food – the majority near the militarised distribution sites of the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the GHF.
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‘Many more deaths unless Israelis allow food in’
In a statement on Friday, the IDF had said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians”, and reports of incidents at aid distribution sites were “under examination”.
The GHF has also previously disputed that these deaths were connected with its organisation’s operations, with director Johnnie Moore telling Sky News: “We just want to feed Gazans. That’s the only thing that we want to do.”
Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and has accused the UN of failing to distribute it, in what the foreign ministry has labelled as “a deliberate ploy” to defame the country.
‘Humanitarian catastrophe must end’
In a video message posted on X late last night, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the scenes in Gaza as “appalling” and “unrelenting” – and said “the images of starvation and desperation are utterly horrifying”.
The prime minister added: “The denial of aid to children and babies is completely unjustifiable, just as the continued captivity of hostages is completely unjustifiable.
“Hundreds of civilians have been killed while seeking aid – children, killed, whilst collecting water. It is a humanitarian catastrophe, and it must end.”
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Israeli military show aid waiting inside Gaza
Sir Keir confirmed that the British government is now “accelerating efforts” to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, so they can be brought to the UK for specialist treatment.
Israel has now said that foreign countries will be able to airdrop aid into Gaza. While the PM says the UK will now “do everything we can” to get supplies in via this route, he said this decision has come “far too late”.
Read more:
WHO: Gaza faces ‘manmade’ starvation
UN: People in Gaza ‘walking corpses’
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Last year, the RAF dropped aid into Gaza, but humanitarian organisations warned it wasn’t enough and was potentially dangerous. In March 2024, five people were killed when an aid parachute failed and supplies fell on them.
For now, Sir Keir has rejected calls to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and recognise a Palestinian state – despite more than 220 MPs signing a cross-party letter to demand he takes this step.
The prime minister is instead demanding a ceasefire and “lasting peace” – and says he will only consider an independent state as part of a negotiated peace deal.
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