Al-Jazeera Net correspondents
Sana'a – For almost a month, hundreds of Yemenis have been stuck in the city of Port Sudan, surrounded by frustration, disappointment, and a sense of abandonment, despite their desperate pleas to the Yemeni government to quickly evacuate them, return them to their country, and end their suffering.
The Yemeni Abdo Al-Samadi, a doctoral student in economic geology and mining, tells part of his story, which reflects the suffering of the Yemenis, who are now sleeping on the ground and wrapping themselves in the sky, awaiting the expected relief, as he is currently suffering from swelling in his feet due to a disturbance in the salts of body fluids.
Al-Samadi said – to Al-Jazeera Net – that the Yemenis were glad to be hosted in a large wedding hall in Port Sudan, but the days passed for them gloomy and monotonous, and the wedding and wedding hall in which the Yemenis crowded about a month ago turned into a prison for pain, disease and deadly waiting.
He added, "We were in Khartoum in a state of fear and terror amid the smells of gunpowder, the whistling of bullets, and the explosions of shelling and cannons. As for Port Sudan, we suffer from disease, worry, and misery, and we feel frustration and bitterness."
On the fourth of May, the Yemenis bid farewell with great sadness, heartbreak, and bitter pain, Wafaa Muhammad Abdullah, 41, after 3 days she spent in intensive care at Othman Digna Hospital in Port Sudan.
Wafaa was involved in a traffic accident on her and her family's way of displacement from Khartoum, which led to the death of her 10-year-old daughter, Maram Laith Abdel Wahid, and the injury of her two children, Maryam and Mustafa.
On May 11, an elderly woman named Saada Al-Shamiri died after her health deteriorated, and she was buried in the Port Sudan cemetery, along with Wafaa and her daughter.
Clots and abortion
The report of the Medical Emergency Committee for the stranded Yemenis stated that 3 Yemeni women died, two of them in a traffic accident, and the third as a result of an injury that was exacerbated by poor health conditions and the delay in evacuation.
The report, which Al-Jazeera Net received a copy of, indicated that 4 Yemenis were trapped with angina pectoris as a result of heart attacks, and a twenty-year-old man suffered a transient ischemic attack in the brain, while two women suffered miscarriages as a result of the suffering.
The report indicated that the cases of gastrointestinal infections that were seen during the month exceeded 300 cases, while the cases of upper and lower respiratory tract infections amounted to 200 cases.
The head of the Union of Yemeni Students in Sudan, Afif Al-Barashy, said that the number of Yemenis currently stranded in Port Sudan is 1,200, half of whom are university students and postgraduate students, and the other half are women and children.
In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Barashi mentioned that about 900 Yemenis were evacuated in the past days via Saudi warships and civilian ships to the city of Jeddah, while 791 Yemenis were evacuated to Aden and Sana'a via Yemenia Airlines.
He attributed the delay in evacuating the stranded to the Yemeni government's delay in paying the financial costs of Yemenia Airlines or contracting with the Sudanese "Tarco" airline.
government pledge
In turn, the Deputy Minister of Expatriate Affairs in the Yemeni government, Muhammad Al-Adil, confirmed that efforts are in full swing to evacuate all Yemenis currently in Port Sudan.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Adil indicated that the ministry had formed, since the beginning of the crisis in Sudan, an emergency committee to follow up the conditions of the Yemenis and facilitate their movement from Khartoum to Port Sudan.
He also pointed out that the staff of the Yemeni embassy in Khartoum are currently in Port Sudan, including the ambassador who was in Yemen before the outbreak of the war in the Sudanese capital, and returned to Port Sudan to follow up on the situation of the Yemenis.
He said that the total number of those evacuated to date is 1,539 Yemenis, including 749 people by sea by Saudi warships, and 789 people by air by Yemeni Airlines, with two flights to Sanaa and two flights to Aden.
He added that the Yemenis currently in Port Sudan number 1,200, including 400 families and 800 students and workers.
He explained that most of those who left Khartoum and requested evacuation are students, workers and families who fled Yemen to escape the war that erupted after the 2014 coup.
He informed the stranded that the Yemeni government had contracted with Sudanese airlines to quickly evacuate the rest of the Yemenis from Port Sudan in the coming days. Regarding the number of Yemeni community members in Sudan, he said that the total number of Yemenis exceeds 50,000 and most of them are still practicing their business in a number of states of Sudan.
