An Irish lady chooses to stay in Umbedda instead of being evacuated from Sudan

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Mrs. Eleanor shared her story with Moatinoon about the war in Khartoum. She is an Irish woman married to a Sudanese man and works for a non-governmental organization.

We left kht2 for a day trip to umbedda; i could never have imagined that 2 months later we would still be here, with one new addition to our family.
There was no power in the neighbourhood the first night. The heat was unbearable so we slept outside with the noise of gunfire and shelling in the distance. Luckily the power came back the next day and has stayed on since.

My colleagues were in a very bad situation in khartoum2 and i was so worried about them. Eventually they managed to evacuate to a safer area and began planning to join the UN convoy to Port Sudan. We could not join them as the meeting point was across the city and also the journey would have been too arduous as i was 36 weeks pregnant with a one year old daughter.

I had registered with the Irish embassy in Kenya and they emailed me with details of an evacuation flight. The pick up point was in amarat which was over the bridge and we would have had to cross many checkpoints of both sides. Tarig would not be able to accompany me either and so if we left we didn’t know when we would be able to meet again. I really struggled with the decision of whether to stay or go. Ultimately we decided to stay together as a family. We were apart for one year in 2020 due to covid and we didn’t want to go through that again. We felt safe in umbedda and there was power, water, food and internet access. The most difficult thing was to tell my family in Ireland of my decision to stay. The evacuations were headline news in Ireland and they expected me to leave. I hated to have them so worried about me.

I went into labour on the night of 4th may and baby Zena was born on the morning of 5th May. Luckily the delivery was not complicated. I had been going to Royalcare hospital for checkups throughout my pregnancy but we could no longer access that hospital, so we went to the local hospital.

I am in a whatsapp group of foreign ladies who are married to sudanese man. Many families have been split up depending on who has a valid visa or the “right” passport. It was heartbreaking to hear the stories of those who left and those who hatoto make difficult choices and leave loved ones behind. We have kept each other company throughout, although there are only 2 of us now remaining in Sudan and the others have all left. We joke about our misfortune to have fallen in love with sudanese man, and now stuck in a warzone. We should have chosen a mexican and we could be on a beach now sipping a cocktail and living a worry free life!