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How these Kenyan women survived deadly gunfire in Sudan without food


Eleven Kenyan women who had been locked up inside a salon in Sudan’s capital Khartoum since the start of fighting between government soldiers and rebels have finally been rescued.

Eleven women who had been locked up inside a salon in Sudan’s capital Khartoum since the start of fighting between government soldiers and rebels have finally been rescued.

Nairobi News has established that the rescue mission was not easy and at some point two of these women were arrested by soldiers.

As sporadic gunfire kept ringing on in the capital, the women were all locked up in one place and their efforts to convince their boss to allow them leave became futile.

Ms Deborah Nyanchoka ,who quickly launched an online plea to Kenyans and people of goodwill to assist them from their predicament, said things were really bad.

“Gunfire rented the air day and night. It was a difficult experience and it was so hard for us to even sleep,” Ms Nyanchoka said.

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Ms Nyanchoka said when they managed to get the phone number of the Kenyan Embassy in Sudan, officials told them that they would have to get their way there.

She said their boss even refused to hand them back their passports and that they did not have any food and water while holed up in the salon.

Some of the Kenyan women who were recently caught up in heavy fighting in Khartoum. PHOTO | COURTESY

“We stayed with no food, no water for six days. The building we were in had been shot at severally,” she said.

Ms Nyanchoka said all the time they were inside the salon it seemed that they had been left alone and no one even checked on them. She said at some point they feared that would not survive.

Their salvation came on Tuesday when a bus managed to get its way to the salon but they were stopped from leaving in unclear circumstances.

They had to wait until the next day when they were released. However, two of them identified as Ms Irene Wambui and Ms Maureen Wanyua were arrested by Sudanese soldiers.

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“We don’t know where they were taken to by the soldiers who picked them from amongst us,” Ms Nyanchoka said.

She said once they were released they started walking on the streets of Khartoum as fighting intensified.

Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to the ceasefire “following intense negotiations”, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement shortly before the truce took effect at midnight (2200 GMT Monday).

Previous bids to end the conflict failed but both sides confirmed they had agreed to the three-day ceasefire.

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