Thousands Endure Long Wait for Safety at Sudan-Ethiopia Border

People fleeing war-torn Sudan queue to board a boat from Port Sudan on April 28, 2023. (AFP)
People fleeing war-torn Sudan queue to board a boat from Port Sudan on April 28, 2023. (AFP)
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Thousands Endure Long Wait for Safety at Sudan-Ethiopia Border

People fleeing war-torn Sudan queue to board a boat from Port Sudan on April 28, 2023. (AFP)
People fleeing war-torn Sudan queue to board a boat from Port Sudan on April 28, 2023. (AFP)

An interminable row of minibuses lines the road that separates Sudan's southeastern city of Gedaref from the Ethiopian border, slowly bringing people fleeing Sudan's war closer to safety.

There, families have been "sleeping on the ground out in the open", said Oktay Oglu, a Turkish engineer who worked at a factory in the capital Khartoum before escaping with his family.

Locals and foreigners alike have made this journey, fleeing more than two weeks of brutal fighting that pits forces loyal to rival generals against one other, with civilians caught in the crossfire.

The war in the capital and other parts of Sudan has killed hundreds, injured thousands and uprooted tens of thousands, some of whom have fled to neighboring countries including Ethiopia.

The minibuses move at a snail's pace. At the end of the road to the border, Sudanese and Ethiopian flags flutter in the sky, a mere 10 meters (yards) between them.

But there, another long wait lies in store.

With his wife and three children, Oglu made the arduous trip from Khartoum to Gedaref after waiting days until a relative lull in fighting allowed them to escape.

They first reached the city of Wad Madani 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of the capital, where witnesses say life continues relatively normally. They spent the night there before continuing on to Gedaref another 250 kilometers east.

Finally, the road led them to the border with Ethiopia and the small community of Gallabat, with its bare-bones homes made out of wood and dried grass.

Having arrived at the crossing after it closed at 5:00 pm, they had to wait out the night until it reopened at 8:00 am the next morning.

From Gondar to Dubai

At the crossing they found nationals from all over the world gathered, all hoping to make it to the other side in as little time as possible.

An official at the crossing, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about "9,000 people crossed the border, the majority foreigners, including many Turkish".

Data from the United Nations' International Organization for Migration said about 3,500 people of 35 different nationalities had found refuge in Ethiopia as of Tuesday.

More than 40 percent of those are Turkish, while 14 percent are Ethiopians who lived in Sudan and are returning home.

Many of the Sudanese crossing are Gulf workers like 35-year-old Diaeddin Mohammed, an accountant with a Dubai-based company.

Though many among Khartoum's five million residents chose to flee northwards towards Egypt or east to Port Sudan -- where Saudi ships have been transporting foreigners across the Red Sea to Jeddah -- Mohammed favored another route.

"I chose Ethiopia because the distance from Khartoum to the Ethiopian city of Gondar, which has an airport... is about 850 kilometers," he said.

By comparison, Cairo is a grueling 2,000 kilometer road trip north through the desert, with refugees often waiting days to be processed at the border.

Once in Gondar, Mohammed could easily book a direct flight to Dubai.

Others have fled with no prospect of job security or a second home to return to.

Ahmed Hussein, 45, had to abandon his small business in Khartoum for a life in exile along with his wife and three daughters.

"We want to cross to safety in Addis Ababa until we see where things are going in Sudan," he told AFP.

Hussein added that he would try to start a small business in Ethiopia, "if that is possible".

In the meantime, he said, they would try to survive "with whatever means I have".



Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
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Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)

The al-Manasra family rarely get enough water for both drinking and washing after their daily trudge to a Gaza distribution point like the one where eight people were killed on Sunday in a strike that Israel's military said had missed its target.

Living in a tent camp by the ruins of a smashed concrete building in Gaza City, the family say their children are already suffering from diarrhea and skin maladies and from the lack of clean water, and they fear worse to come.

"There's no water, our children have been infected with scabies, there are no hospitals to go to and no medications," said Akram Manasra, 51.

He had set off on Monday for a local water tap with three of his daughters, each of them carrying two heavy plastic containers in Gaza's blazing summer heat, but they only managed to fill two - barely enough for the family of 10.

Gaza's lack of clean water after 21 months of war and four months of Israeli blockade is already having "devastating impacts on public health" the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report this month.

For people queuing at a water distribution point on Sunday it was fatal. A missile that Israel said had targeted fighters but malfunctioned hit a queue of people waiting to collect water at the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel's blockade of fuel along with the difficulty in accessing wells and desalination plants in zones controlled by the Israeli military is severely constraining water, sanitation and hygiene services according to OCHA.

Fuel shortages have also hit waste and sewage services, risking more contamination of the tiny, crowded territory's dwindling water supply, and diseases causing diarrhea and jaundice are spreading among people crammed into shelters and weakened by hunger.

"If electricity was allowed to desalination plants the problem of a lethal lack of water, which is what's becoming the situation now in Gaza, would be changed within 24 hours," said James Elder, the spokesperson for the UN's children's agency UNICEF.

"What possible reason can there be for denying of a legitimate amount of water that a family needs?" he added.

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, an Israeli military official said that Israel was allowing sufficient fuel into Gaza but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview.

THIRSTY AND DIRTY

For the Manasra family, like others in Gaza, the daily toil of finding water is exhausting and often fruitless.

Inside their tent the family tries to maintain hygiene by sweeping. But there is no water for proper cleaning and sometimes they are unable to wash dishes from their meager meals for several days at a time.

Manasra sat in the tent and showed how one of his young daughters had angry red marks across her back from what he said a doctor had told them was a skin infection caused by the lack of clean water.

They maintain a strict regimen of water use by priority.

After pouring their two containers of water from the distribution point into a broken plastic water butt by their tent, they use it to clean themselves from the tap, using their hands to spoon it over their heads and bodies.

Water that runs off into the basin underneath is then used for dishes and after that - now grey and dirty - for clothes.

"How is this going to be enough for 10 people? For the showering, washing, dish washing, and the washing of the covers. It's been three months; we haven't washed the covers, and the weather is hot," Manasra said.

His wife, Umm Khaled, sat washing clothes in a tiny puddle of water at the bottom of a bucket - all that was left after the more urgent requirements of drinking and cooking.

"My daughter was very sick from the heat rash and the scabies. I went to several doctors for her and they prescribed many medications. Two of my children yesterday, one had diarrhea and vomiting and the other had fever and infections from the dirty water," she said.