Imtiaz Sooliman – Evacuation of SA citizens from Sudan

On this. We're joined via zoom by Doctor MTS, Sulaiman, founder of

gift of the givers. Doctor MTS, good afternoon. Thank you for

joining us here on the ACBC, good

afternoon, Lisa. Thank you very much so, Doctor MTS, we understand

that gift of the givers, as we've been involved in the evacuation of

South Africans in Sudan, perhaps you could talk to us through the

kind of support that you provided when

we got involved by accident. You know, on the seventh of April, we

started getting the first calls from South Africans panicking,

saying, The bombs are flowing everywhere. You want to come out

of the country. It's a it's a * hole, it's dangerous. They need to

get out and in that week, we started getting more calls from

South Africans. And then we realized, what the panic and, you

know, the anxiety, then we need to hold their hand, so we were

guiding them along the line. But they did very well themselves.

They arranged their own chat groups. They spoke to each other,

they supported each other. They said, what you got to do next? And

then we asked, okay, is there an airport available on your mind?

They said, it's bomb. You can't use it. I said, What about

alternative airports? And this found alternative airports, but by

the time all arrangements were made, airports closed because

those airports were taking military planes without holding

forces started fighting around those airports, so that wasn't

possible. The third option, and the only option left, was to go by

bus. North District. Could choose Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Port

Sudan or Egypt. Most people opted we were we opted for Egypt as the

best option. Some South Africans, through their companies, went to

port Sudan on their own, and you know, the company sort of got them

out from there. And then the Egypt option. When busses had to become

available, busses were in short supply, so you couldn't get busses

in Ari. When you got the busses, they wanted cash up front. You

couldn't do a bank transfer. There's no money. Banks are

closed, no credit card, no EFT. Unfortunately, their CO had some

money in embassy, and they managed to pay for the two busses

thereafter, of course, because of communication networks, we found

that on Sunday night, a lot of the messages didn't get through, so

four South Africans were left behind. That's when we decided to

put up an additional bus, because we couldn't leave anybody behind.

And earlier in the in the in the weekend, Turko was speaking to me

about other nationals also needing assistance to come out. So we

said, it's a free bus, anybody can get on. That the biggest challenge

on that was true. We needed cash money. And secondly, what Jason

spoke about earlier, the absence of documents. Absence of documents

is an absolute nightmare. On the border, people are stranded for

456, days because they don't have documents. They panic. It's 40

degrees heat, there's no water, there's no food, there's no

computer support. It just 1000s of people caught up in that mess, so,

you know. And then so the bus issue came, and the bus driver

said, No problem, you can have bus money up front. We didn't have

money up front. There was no cash. People could give any cash,

fortunately, because our networks, one of my team members, lived in

Sudan for seven years, I totally make the call, but in three

minutes, the bus driver said, all this money, take the bus, and you

got the bus four South Africa for the South Africans, and eventually

found more South Africans. So eight South Africans, two

Americans, one British, one Nigerian, one Zimbabwean, four

Palestinians and four Sudanese jumped onto that bus. The next

stage to get people from different areas to the bus is another

challenge. Yeah. Armored Personnel carries are moving, bombing and a

lot of other things happening. You know, the roads are closed,

fighting all over. So that is another challenge to get people to

the bus. But we got there, trying to enter it. And I think one part

we have to talk about the emotional, the psychological

issue, the impact has been huge on our own, South Africans and people

from all over the world, absolutely. Doctor. MTS, I think

for those who are not really aware of the situation at hand, how

severe is the situation in Sudan? I mean, are you considering

extending your aid to other countries as well who have been

have citizens stuck in Sudan, perhaps providing aid to Sudanese

nationals are also in need. Walk us through what your interventions

will also look like on that front going forward,

I would like to help everybody, but you can't help nationals from

another country. They have to be protected by their own government.

It's a diplomatic issue. South Africa can't stand guarantee for

somebody else. But while saying that, I mean they did well. Seven

Angolans got out on the first bus, and person got out on the first

bus, and South Africa helped both those nationals to come to the

border. You know, they made it. And the diplomatic started very

well on that issue. Then came the British and the two Americans. Now

we were involved specifically with Americans, because the eighth

person on the bus there was a family of seven, and the eighth

person was a lady who decided not to go the first time down and of

course, didn't get the message. And she and her family that just

for you, asked the challenges. They saw the shooting, they saw

the bombing. Her husband was even shot at the rubber bullet. They

saw people getting killed. They were totally traumatized, and they

just drove off 200 kilometers into the sun anyway, and got a place of

safety with some.