MINSK, 3 February (BelTA) - Belarusian citizens evacuated from Sudan – the brother and sister Ammar and Miriam Jadallah – shared the details of the difficult operation in an interview with the ONT TV channel, BelTA has learned.
The young woman is a doctor by education. The 17-year-old boy was still at school in Sudan. The situation there is difficult today due to the internal political crisis. The Belarusians decided to go at their own risk. They wanted to do it earlier but no one could guarantee safety.
"We made the decision when we ran out of water and money. In general, things were very difficult. We ran to the city as we had acquaintances there. Though they, too, were already thinking about fleeing the city. We decided to go to our mother. My father said, “Go. Do it,'" Miriam Jadallah said. “We contacted the consul in Cairo, he helped us. There was a problem as Egypt didn't want to give us a pass. We were also robbed on the road at a knife point.”
Mother Olga Ageyeva turned to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for help. "When they (they are actually bandits) entered their city, a shootout began near our house. The kids jumped out into the yard and called me. I told them to take the Belarusian passports and anything they could grab and run," the woman recalled.
She said that in fact, the civil war began in April of last year and there was only one possibility of evacuation, with the Russian embassy. The brother and sister did not take that possibility as they had to travel around 200km and it was not safe on the road. Cars were shot at, especially good ones.
According to attaché of the Belarusian Embassy in Egypt Nikita Mikulich, at first there was a request from a Belarusian citizen asking for assistance in the evacuation of her children from Sudan. “We immediately contacted her, clarified the situation, their whereabouts, and whether they had valid Belarusian documents. After getting all necessary information we prepared the corresponding requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt asking for assistance in the evacuation,” the consul said.
Details of the operation are kept secret. It is known that the evacuation took place amid a difficult military and political situation in Sudan. Egypt became a transit point on route of the Belarusian citizens home. At the border, Ammar and Miriam were met by an employee of the Belarusian embassy. Other government agencies also took part in the operation.
It took about two weeks for all the stakeholders to return the Belarusian citizens home. It was the president’s instruction to provide all possible support for the Belarusians, who found themselves in a difficult situation abroad. Now Ammar and Miriam are in Moscow, and tomorrow they will travel to Minsk.
Olga Ageyeva is keeping in touch with her children. She shared some details of the phone conversation with her daughter, who said: “Mom, for the first time we feel like normal people, like citizens of our country that provided immediate support to us. For so long we have felt like grain in the sand. Our country told us it would help us, and that everything would be fine.” The woman added that these words might sound pretentious, but these were exactly the words her daughter said.
The young woman is a doctor by education. The 17-year-old boy was still at school in Sudan. The situation there is difficult today due to the internal political crisis. The Belarusians decided to go at their own risk. They wanted to do it earlier but no one could guarantee safety.
"We made the decision when we ran out of water and money. In general, things were very difficult. We ran to the city as we had acquaintances there. Though they, too, were already thinking about fleeing the city. We decided to go to our mother. My father said, “Go. Do it,'" Miriam Jadallah said. “We contacted the consul in Cairo, he helped us. There was a problem as Egypt didn't want to give us a pass. We were also robbed on the road at a knife point.”
Mother Olga Ageyeva turned to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for help. "When they (they are actually bandits) entered their city, a shootout began near our house. The kids jumped out into the yard and called me. I told them to take the Belarusian passports and anything they could grab and run," the woman recalled.
She said that in fact, the civil war began in April of last year and there was only one possibility of evacuation, with the Russian embassy. The brother and sister did not take that possibility as they had to travel around 200km and it was not safe on the road. Cars were shot at, especially good ones.
According to attaché of the Belarusian Embassy in Egypt Nikita Mikulich, at first there was a request from a Belarusian citizen asking for assistance in the evacuation of her children from Sudan. “We immediately contacted her, clarified the situation, their whereabouts, and whether they had valid Belarusian documents. After getting all necessary information we prepared the corresponding requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt asking for assistance in the evacuation,” the consul said.
Details of the operation are kept secret. It is known that the evacuation took place amid a difficult military and political situation in Sudan. Egypt became a transit point on route of the Belarusian citizens home. At the border, Ammar and Miriam were met by an employee of the Belarusian embassy. Other government agencies also took part in the operation.
It took about two weeks for all the stakeholders to return the Belarusian citizens home. It was the president’s instruction to provide all possible support for the Belarusians, who found themselves in a difficult situation abroad. Now Ammar and Miriam are in Moscow, and tomorrow they will travel to Minsk.
Olga Ageyeva is keeping in touch with her children. She shared some details of the phone conversation with her daughter, who said: “Mom, for the first time we feel like normal people, like citizens of our country that provided immediate support to us. For so long we have felt like grain in the sand. Our country told us it would help us, and that everything would be fine.” The woman added that these words might sound pretentious, but these were exactly the words her daughter said.
