Residents in South Sudan Face Difficult Choice Between Leaving and Staying

 Just days after armed conflict broke out in Sudan, Dalia Mohamed and her mother were faced with a difficult choice: should they evacuate the capital city of Khartoum or should they stay?

The constant noise of gunfire, rockets, and shelling was unbearable, and they were forced to flee their home because of the conflict. On Thursday, after a rocket attack damaged their home, they fled with only the essentials.

The 37-year-old Mohamed claimed he had no plans to leave Khartoum. According to a popular proverb, "you always hear these stories about people needing to leave their homes, but it doesn't hit you until you have to."In the years preceding up to Sudan's official recognition in 2011, many people from Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and South Sudan moved to Khartoum.

Over the course of decades, civilian and military elites reaped benefits from the country's militization and the extraction of oil and gold from the country's periphery, all the while keeping the citizens of Khartoum at bay. But the army and the RSF are currently engaged in combat in the nation's capital. Both sides have blocked roads and clashed carelessly, resulting in a rising death toll and severe shortages of essentials like food, energy, and water.

Khartoum, once home to five million people, is now a virtual ghost town due to the prevailing climate of fear. Mohamed says it was the worst decision he's ever made. If I felt it was safe to go back, I would do it right now. Absolutely not!

A means of egress

Port Sudan, a coastal city with safe maritime channels to Djibouti and Egypt, is attracting refugees from Khartoum. Despite Egypt's visa-free entry policy for children, the elderly, and women, many people are still making the journey northward. Sudanese men between the ages of 16 and 49 must submit their visa applications one day in advance to the Egyptian embassy at Wadi Halfa, which is located close to the Egyptian border.

Preparing to say goodbye to loved ones, such as children, siblings, or fathers, is an emotional process for many. Several travelers warned Al Jazeera that RSF militants rob and pillage cars at gunpoint along the routes to Egypt.

Since the security situation is unknown, no escape plan can be made at this time. Currently, Shaima Ahmed is in London trying to persuade her family to leave Khartoum. The 27-year-old had difficulty guiding her distant relatives. It's tough to keep my loved ones in the dark about something I know to be true. I'm not putting them under any undue pressure to go to Egypt, but Ahmed did say he'd have to take the blame if anything went wrong.

When the conflict broke out, British citizen Raga Makawi, who is of Sudanese descent, was visiting family in Khartoum. He noted the difficulty of logistics. She explained that since bus stations are blocked and families cannot take small automobiles, they would need to locate buses and drivers who are familiar with evading RSF checks. Makawi told Al Jazeera the night before she departed for Egypt that it currently costs $10,000 to take a very large bus from Khartoum to Cairo. Just recently, a bus cost $4,000. To save lives, though, individuals are willing to bear any cost.

Not Coming Back

Some families are staying put in Khartoum while their members leave the city to escape the fighting. Dania Atabani, aged 23, has stayed in the city to assist with the care of her elderly grandparents. They were separated from one another. She claimed she barely recognized the site where she had spent so many joyful days and where a statewide democratic movement had its beginnings.

As Atabani put it, "Khartoum went from being a city where we cleaned wounds from tear gas canisters to now giving [people] CPR and trying to stop them from bleeding [to death]." "I miss being a normal 23-year-old with dreams and not running from tanks, while in constant need to save people's lives," she said. The future is unclear for 26-year-old Sammer Hamza. As a result of the violence, her neighborhood is becoming increasingly dangerous. She says that if it were feasible, she would make the worst possible decision by abandoning her city and home. "I don't want to leave my house, really," she told Al Jazeera. I had hoped that war in Sudan might be prevented. I hoped and prayed that war would never come to Khartoum.