Finnish-Sudanese Ekhlas Osman is trying to get his sick mother out of the fighting in Sudan. The mother is not accepted for evacuation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because she does not have a Finnish passport.
– I can’t leave my mother. Then even if we die here together.
This is what a Finnish-Sudanese nurse tells Ekhlas Osman. He is currently visiting his 74-year-old mother in Khartoum.
Ekhlas Osman’s mother is almost paralyzed. He had a stroke four months ago. Since then, he has been bedridden for a large part of the time.
Osman quit his job in Helsinki to take care of his mother. He is an only child and has lived in Finland for over 30 years.
– Mother needs to be fed and her diaper needs to be changed. I can’t leave him alone, and I can’t leave him in the care of the neighbors.
Osman has tried to get his mother to join him in the evacuations organized by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the authorities won’t let him in because she doesn’t have a Finnish passport.
– They only offered me a trip.
Osman has offered as a solution that he could take his mother with him on the first flight and stay at the stopover to arrange a visa for her himself. It has not agreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
– If the situation calms down, I will try to get a car and drive to the Egyptian border and from there to Cairo.
The neighbor’s child is afraid – won’t eat, won’t sleep
According to Ekhlas Osman, the cease-fire that started the night before Tuesday has not really been visible in everyday life. Airplanes are circling in the sky and from time to time you can hear bomb explosions and shooting.
Sudan has been very restless for more than a week, as the Sudanese army and the rival RFS force have been fighting for power. Hundreds of people have died in the clashes and thousands have been wounded.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from Sudan. At least ten out of about 15 Finns have been taken out of the country to safety.
According to Osman, on Monday, a rebel plane dropped a bomb on a nearby street.
– The whole house shook.
Osman says that children in the neighborhood especially suffer from the attacks.
– The neighbor’s child neither eats nor sleeps. He just cries and wants his mother’s arms.
Prices skyrocketed
Electricity is constantly out in Khartoum. Water only comes in the middle of the night. Drinking water is bought from the store.
The local market is usually closed. There aren’t many sellers and you can’t get milk, for example, because its producers don’t come to the market.
– Shopkeepers take advantage of the situation. Prices have tripled. Sugar, rice and everything else has become more expensive.
Even though it’s dangerous outside, you still have to venture there, because Khartoum has 42 degrees at its hottest. It’s hard to be inside.
– Otherwise, we will soon die from the heat.