300 Ugandans Trapped in Khartoum Conflict
By last evening, close to 300 Ugandans were trapped in Khartoum after rival military factions closed the airport and blasts and bullets triggered survival instinct and restrained movement.
State Regional Affairs Minister John Mulimba told Parliament yesterday that some of the stranded in the Sudanese capital, where violence erupted on Saturday, were students and pilgrims heading to Mecca. Some Kampala families received distress calls from relatives trapped in Khartoum hotels with scarce food and water and frequent power outages.
Gen Mohamed Hamden Hemedti Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Sudan Armed Forces are fighting.
The two generals worked together to overthrow Omar el-Bashir in 2019, but they disagreed over plans to integrate the RSF into the Sudanese army, which Gen Dagalo loyalists fear would weaken him militarily and politically and the fighters.
Gen al-Burhan’s side used jets to double-down firepower to annihilate the enemy in the central business district, with ground battles in-built neighborhoods and on streets leaving no winner. One side’s capture of a military base or key state installation has been quickly reversed or canceled out by the other’s losses, intensifying propaganda.
Mr. Ratib Bayiga, Khartoum’s Ugandan Workers Association chair, said the food was scarce and electricity was off in their hideouts.
We ration food to one meal a day. Before last night’s shaky start to an internationally demanded ceasefire, he said, “We don’t know when the situation will normalize.”
The embassy and Mr. Bayiga’s association registered 300 Ugandans in the conflict. One senior security official said Ugandans avoid registering with diplomatic representations in host countries, so the number of Ugandans in danger in Sudan may be higher.
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120 workers, 116 students, 14 patients, hospital staff, 19 Mecca-bound pilgrims, and six Khartoum visitors were stranded. Officials could not identify others.
Uganda’s ambassador to Sudan, Dr. Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu, calmed concerns about Ugandans in the conflict zone yesterday.
Despite explosions at the refugee hotel, he said, “Your people are alive and safe” in bunkers.
In yesterday’s interview, Mr. Bayiga said they had not received any reports of Ugandan casualties, but the situation was tense.
Heavy fighting and bombing surround the city. 120 workers in Khartoum, 120 students, six short-term visitors, and nineteen Ugandans in transit to Saudi Arabia. He said, “We communicate with the embassy constantly.”
Mr. Muhammad Mutumba, leader of the 19 Muslim pilgrims trapped in Khartoum’s Kabri Alsham Hotel, warned of food shortages.
“We don’t have power here,” he said. “We’re still at the hotel, we haven’t been taken to the embassy. We don’t know when the bombing will stop.”
Late yesterday, both sides agreed to halt fighting for 24 hours as a goodwill gesture to end fighting and resume talks.
Ambassador Ssemuddu said they would consider evacuating Ugandans after the guns stopped and dialogue resumed.
After a plane to Mecca and Medinah in Saudi Arabia was bombed, the Uganda group was stranded at Khartoum airport.
They planned to fly out on Saturday, the day clashes broke out, after a two-day stopover in the Sudanese capital.
Mr. Muhamad Shaawal, director of Al-shall Hijja and Umrah Ltd., which organizes Ugandan Muslims’ annual pilgrimage, requested that Uganda rescue the trapped faithful.
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Minister Mulimba told Parliament in Kampala yesterday that they had approached the International Organization for Migration (lOM) to help return Ugandan nationals home.
A day earlier, Shadow Foreign Affairs minister and Kyadondo East MP Muwada Nkunyingi criticized the government for failing to repatriate its citizens.
“We urge the Ugandan regime, through the Foreign Affairs Ministry and our mission in Khartoum, to immediately initiate diplomatic measures of rescuing the thousands of Uganda nationals caught up by the Sudan armed conflict,” he said on Monday.
The Shadow Minister did not provide proof that thousands of Ugandans were in Sudan.
Ugandans should avoid traveling to or through Sudan until the situation improves. He advised passengers to avoid Sudan airports and borders.
STRANDED PILGRIMS
1. Abdulwahab Sserunjoji
2. Ssabbuti Kawuki
3. Mohamed Kayemba
4. Husinah Mutungutasi
5. Aidah Nabukkera
6. Isa Kawuki
7. Sarah Nassimbwa
8. Yusuf Musoke,
9. Jamiidah Nakamya
10. Ali Kateregga
11. Ally Mwalimu Kibirango
12. Ibrahim Ssali Ssekajja
13. Fatuma Nakabugo
14. Abdulrahiman Kikubira
15. Kamida Kebirungi
16. Shaban Kyanda
17. Fahad Sekayi
18. Mutumba Muhamad
19. Mahadi Ssebunya
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