War: Endless Tragedies
Osman Fadlallah
Many are oblivious to the dire situation people are facing. The hotels and streets of Addis Ababa tell countless tales of misery and reveal the depths of our despair. In the neighborhoods of "Bole Rwanda" and "Meskel Flower," cheap hotels, where both accommodation and human dignity are inexpensive, are crowded with dozens of families. Women, children, and the elderly are all waiting their turn to obtain a visa from the Saudi embassy. Everything here comes at a dollar cost: medical examinations, appointment bookings, health insurance.
Nafisa, a university student, arrived in Addis Ababa with her septuagenarian father to join her brother in Saudi Arabia after they lost their mother and sister when a shell hit their home in the Thawra district.
"We arrived here after a nearly month-long journey," Nafisa recounts. "We moved from Omdurman to Shendi, then to Kassala, and on to Gedaref, and finally to Gondar in Ethiopia. On the way, armed men took all our money and even our phones."
Nafisa continues, "We reached Gondar and stayed on the street for a whole day because we couldn’t afford a hotel room. Someone directed us to a person who could lend us money at a 20% interest rate. We pawned our passports for an amount that allowed us to get a room and have food and water. We stayed in Gondar for ten days, but on the eleventh day, when we went to reclaim our passports, we found that my fathers passport was missing. The lender simply told us it was lost, possibly taken by someone else by mistake."
Somehow, Nafisa and her father made it to Addis Ababa. Her father is now ill, and her brother in Saudi Arabia has sold everything he owns to cover their expenses. They have been waiting for over a month to receive her fathers new passport from the Sudanese embassy in Addis Ababa. Nafisa says, "We eat one meal a day, and sometimes I fast for two consecutive days so my father can eat."
Nihal, from West Al-Jazirah, was found standing with her three children, the oldest ten and the youngest two, outside a hotel in the "Meskel Flower" area. Her story is another tragedy. When Janjaweed militia attacked their village, they fled to Sennar and then to Gedaref.
She suggested to her husband that she and the children join him in Saudi Arabia. He initially agreed and sent them family visit visas, advising her to sell her jewelry to cover the travel expenses since he could not afford them.
"I sold one of my three gold bracelets," Nihal says. "We reached Addis Ababa and stayed in a hotel. After a week, my money and the remaining bracelets were stolen. We no longer had enough to complete the visa process. My husband sent some money during the first week, which covered our food, drink, and hotel expenses. But for the past two weeks, his phone has been off, and we havent been able to contact him."
Nihal continues, "We were evicted from the hotel onto the street, and I dont know where to go with my children."
She sought help at the Sudanese embassy, but they had no solutions. One sympathetic staff member gave her enough money to pay off the hotel debt.
Nihal concludes in despair, "Now I am facing eviction again. I can’t afford to return to Sudan or complete the travel procedures to Saudi Arabia. I have no idea what to do."
