“Smile, papa! We’ve finally arrived. We are safe now,” a teenage daughter told her father on the deck of a ferry that took them across Egypt's Lake Nasser with scores of other Sudanese fleeing the fighting in their country.
The father, Nizar Al Warraq, smiled as his daughter steadily held her mobile phone to capture a rare moment of peace at the end of a perilous and exhausting journey.
Thousands of other Sudanese braved the escape from Khartoum's violence to find refuge in neighbouring Egypt.
They enter through two crossings on either side of Lake Nasser; Qastal and Argeen.
Their arrival caps journeys of between two and six days, include two to three nights at the crossing points with little or no food, water and shelter, and cumbersome passport control.
Men between the ages of 19 and 49 need visas that can only be obtained at the Egyptian consulate at Wadi Halfa on the Sudanese side of Lake Nasser. It takes up to four days to get one.
Those who enter through Qastal travel for another 35km to one of two docks on Lake Nasser, one run by the military, the other by the local government.
Only when they arrive on the shores of the lake do they realise that their ordeal is nearing its end.
The beauty of the lake’s greyish blue water, glittering under a gentle afternoon sun, and the unique rock formations within and on the shores of the lake bring some joy.
Men, women and children take out their mobile phones to capture the scenery. Some just stare at the water, taking in the cool breeze, with an unmistakable look of contentment, albeit temporary.
Their arrival here is marred by memories of taxing journeys. They don't wait long before their resilience is again put to the test.
An ambulance is parked next to buses and lorries on the ferry’s deck. Inside is a woman who broke her hip while disembarking the bus at Qastal and a diabetic man suffering excruciating pain in his leg.
“They should be fine until they receive treatment at Abu Simbel hospital,” the ambulance driver said, confidently.
When the ferry docked at Abu Simbel after the hour-long trip, the refugees faced a 270km journey to Karkar bus terminal near Aswan, from where they take a second bus to travel farther north in Egypt.
Those destined for Cairo have a 12-hour, 1,000km journey ahead of them.
Among the 40,000 Sudanese who have arrived in Egypt so far, many endure the unbearable pain of leaving loved ones behind because they were too old or sick to travel. They abandoned homes that are easy targets for bands of burglars roaming the Sudanese capital.
Now they are bracing for the uncertainty that comes with a new life they never chose, joining the 100,000 that the UN refugee agency says have fled to countries like Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad.
A seat on a bus from Khartoum to Aswan costs between $300 and $500. A double room in a three or four-star hotel in Aswan is between $50 and $100 a night. Furnished apartments in Aswan are now rare after most of them were taken in the early wave of arrivals. Prices are much higher in Cairo.
The UN has warned that more than 800,000 people could flee the war in Sudan, where the army has been fighting a rival paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces, since April 15.
Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded in the fighting. Those left behind in Khartoum are surviving without running water or power, dwindling food supplies and virtually no fuel.
Medical services have been crippled and most streets are too dangerous, with artillery shelling and air strikes continuing despite a series of ceasefires mediated by foreign powers.
Despite leaving, memories of the deadly violence haunt the Sudanese here.
“One day an artillery shell landed as close as that,” Mr Al Warraq told The National while pointing to the shore 30 metres away, as the noisy ferry slowed to dock at Abu Simbel.
“The building it directly hit was almost totally destroyed. Nearby homes were damaged and many cars were destroyed.”
A father of six, Mr Al Warraq, his wife and children, live in the Khartoum district of Al Jeref Sharq. It took them two and a half hours to get out without being caught in the crossfire, he said.
“Now, we don’t know what to do. Stay in Aswan or carry on to Cairo,” he said as he walked back to his family, seated on a wooden bench by the vessel’s railing on the deck.
Nabil Abdel Jaleel, a retired Sudan Airways employee, was also on the ferry, travelling with two of his children. His wife was in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, performing Umrah when the fighting broke out.
They live in a part of southern Khartoum that did not see street fighting, but the loud shelling and air strikes could be heard, sometimes shaking their apartment.
Stranded in Saudi Arabia, his wife was so alarmed by television footage from Khartoum that she insisted they travel to Cairo, where she plans to join them.
“We were treated well at the crossing, but processing our passports took four whole hours,” said Mr Abdel Jaleel. “There was water to buy and a large cafeteria that had cold snacks.”
His journey, however, took six days to complete because his son, a 25-year-old civil engineer, needed a visa to enter Egypt.
“It took me four days to get my visa in Wadi Halfa. It looked like half of Sudan was there with me applying for a visa,” the son said.
Days before they left their home in southern Khartoum a stray shell hit their building, setting ablaze a ground-floor apartment they own and violently shaking their fifth-storey flat.
“It looks like I will have to look for a job now in the Gulf region,” the son Khalid said, with resignation as he looked at younger Sudanese taking photos of the lake as the ferry sailed.
“They have earned the right to behave like tourists after all they have gone through,” he added.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
More coverage from the Future Forum
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Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
if you go
The flights
Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.
The hotel
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Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850
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Events and tours
There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com
For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art.
More information
For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan v Juventus
Saturday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Watch the match on BeIN Sports
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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More coverage from the Future Forum
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
The five pillars of Islam
More on Quran memorisation:
RESULT
Liverpool 4 Southampton 0
Jota (2', 32')
Thiago (37')
Van Dijk (52')
Man of the match: Diogo Jota (Liverpool)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
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Mobile phone packages comparison
