Sudanese community in Belfast fear for safety of family members as they struggle to escape conflict

Sudanese people living in Belfast have spoken about their fears for family members who are caught up in the ongoing conflict in the African country.

The violence in the country continues to rage between the Sudanese Army and paramilitary forces.

Work is continuing to help British and Irish citizens flee the violence, but on Monday, Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell said that no evacuation options came without grave risk to life.

For the Sudanese community living in Northern Ireland it's a deeply worrrying time. Afnan Elfatih, whose family is stuck in Sudan said: "People are dying for no reason so i'm very sad and upset."

Ameer Ibrahim's Niece and Nephew are in the African country. His niece was born in Ballymena but had been visiting Sudan.

Ameer says they have organised a bus to take them to Egypt to the North, but there is no signal on the journey so he is in the dark around how they are.

After moving UK diplomats to safety, the government has faced criticism for not acting quickly enough to get remaining British citizens out. Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell spoke in the Commons on Monday about the situation.

"Movement around the capital (Khartoum) remains extremely dangerous and no evacuation option comes without grave risk to life," he said.

He added, "We continue to advise all British nationals in Sudan to stay indoors wherever possible."

Despite the difficulty in escaping the country, dozens of Irish citizens have managed to flee with assistance from French and Spanish authorities. The Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin described the situation as 'very fluid' and confirmed the "Irish Government, the emergency civil team are there with our defence forces, working with our European Union colleagues to do everything we can to secure the evacuation of all Irish citizens who are registered with our embassy."

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