Agonising choice of NHS doctor fleeing Sudan has left her riddled with worry and guilt
As the UK government begins evacuating British citizens from Sudan, many have made their own way out to safety.
Hotels across Djibouti have become places of refuge for those fleeing devastation and bloodshed in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated and brought here by international rescue missions. A sleepy port city turned global military base and now a gateway for those scrambling to long-term safety.
Battles rage as fears grow of looming catastrophe – Sudan latest
In just one building in the centre of town are dozens of Irish citizens and their immediate family members – the last place I was expecting to see a friend from Khartoum, NHS doctor Iman Abugarja.
Like others in the lobby, her eyes were round with disbelief and red from tears. When we embraced, her head shook from side to side. “No, no, no,” her head signalled. A rejection of the horrifying reality.
Dr Iman Abugarja is a British citizen and was able to leave Khartoum by sheer perseverance.
Her son is an Irish national and received a note from the embassy that an evacuation mission was under way.
When she arrived with him and her 17-year-old daughter at the embassy where the European Union effort was being organised – an extremely hard-hit area in Khartoum – an injured man was being taken into safety on a mattress.
Dr Iman Abugarja and her daughter Sarah and son have fled Sudan
She offered her help as a doctor and was ushered in by the security guard. Once she was in the building, the head of the mission welcomed her on board the flight in a gesture of generosity.
“They took me in to meet the consul and I said: ‘I’m British – I am not EU.’ He said: ‘No, you’re still in the European Union’, which I thought was very, very kind,” says Dr Abugarja with a watery smile.
“But I couldn’t go out again to say goodbye to my mother or my sister,” she added.
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Streets of Khartoum are devastated
Dr Abugarja had to face an unthinkable decision: to stay with her elderly, sick parents or get her children to safety.
The agony of the choice hangs between her brows and the corners of her mouth.
She is riddled with worry and guilt as another US-brokered ceasefire fails to end the violence in her hometown where her closest family remain.
“My 96-year-old grandmother is also with my parents there,” she says. “These are the people we have left behind – the most vulnerable – and it is just heartbreaking.”
‘People are still trapped’
Her 17-year-old daughter is also feeling the cost of her own survival.
“Honesty, I feel really really guilty. Leaving my grandparents there is really hard,” says Sarah, holding her mother’s hand. She was planning to go to medical school in Khartoum next year.
“Sarah was saying last night that she feels bad because it almost seems as if it was too easy for us. People are still trapped, exposed to missiles and bombs,” says Dr Abugarja.
Read more:
Britons face perilous escape from Sudan
Ceasefire under way as UK warned ‘not to miss window’ for evacuations
Irish woman’s dramatic escape – as she leaves husband behind
She has plans to head back to Khartoum to retrieve her parents if plans to evacuate her family fail.
She says her elderly father would rather die in his home than live his life abroad as a refugee.
Dr Abugarja adds: “When they do get out we need to ensure they can live in a dignified manner. That they have shelter, food and drink and their medical needs are taken care of – and that is very, very difficult.”
A new aid system has opened its first distribution centres in Gaza, according to a US-backed organisation dealing with supplies.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began its operations in the territory on Monday, following the resignation of its director, Jake Wood, over its independence.
Gaza’s 2.3m population has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s almost three-month blockade.
Boxes of aid to be distributed across Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
The GHF said lorryloads of food – it did not say how many – had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun.
“More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.
The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the United Nations and other aid groups.
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People line up for food in Gaza
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
They claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs, and violates humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
In the meantime, scores of Palestinians in Gaza, like Islam Abu Taima, have resorted to searching through rubbish to find food.
Palestinians are having to search through rubbish to find food
She found a small pile of cooked rice, scraps of bread, and a box with a few pieces of cheese inside it – which she said she will serve to her five children.
“We’re dying of hunger,” she told the Associated Press news agency.
“If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Islam Abu Taeima finds a piece of bread in a pile of rubbish in Gaza City. Pic: AP.
It is unclear how many of the GHF’s aid trucks will enter Gaza.
It claims it will reach one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
There are questions, however, over who is funding it and how it will work.
Trucks transporting aid for Palestinians in Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
It has been set up as part of an Israeli plan – rather than a UN distribution effort.
Israel, which suggested a similar plan earlier this year, has said it will not be involved in distributing the aid but supported the plan and would provide security.
It says aid deliveries into Gaza are taken by Hamas instead of going to civilians.
Aid groups, however, say there is no evidence of this happening on a systemic basis.
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Israel began to allow a limited amount of food into Gaza last week – after a blockade that prevented food, medicine, fuel and other goods from entering the Palestinian enclave.
A letter has been signed by hundreds of judges and lawyers calling on the UK government to impose trade sanctions on Israel.
It also calls for Israeli ministers to be sanctioned and the suspension of Israel from the UN over “serious breaches of international law”.
“Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or that, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide,” the letter says.
The Israeli government has repeatedly dismissed allegations of genocide in Gaza.
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At least 31 dead after school attack
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, following the deadly attacks by the militant group on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
The health ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters in Gaza.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
More on this story:
The forgotten legacy of British children sent to Canada
John Jefkins
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
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