South African Businessman Shares Experience of Being Trapped in Gunfire-Wracked Khartoum
15:34 19.04.2023 (Updated: 17:44 27.04.2023)
© AP Photo / Marwan Ali
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MOSCOW (Sputnik), Tommy Yang – After hundreds of civilians were killed and thousands were injured during the ongoing military conflict in Sudan, a business executive from South Africa trapped in the heart of the Sudanese capital shared with Sputnik his experiences and how he still plans to help the local communities after the fighting is over.
Saturday morning shock
When Ash Ramraj arrived in Khartoum, Sudan on March 11, he was excited about this new opportunity to expand his company’s presence in the northern African country. He was taking over as the head of business development for the Golden Arrow Group, which is a major player in the automotive industry in a number of countries in Africa.
Despite the political instability in Sudan in recent years, Ramraj never felt he could be facing any imminent danger.
"Before I came to the country, I had meetings with my bosses and my colleagues. They said it’s safe in Khartoum. It’ll be mostly some opportunist crimes, like people steal stuff like a cell phone or a wallet if they have an opportunity to. But there’s nothing heinous. I never feigned war," Ramraj told Sputnik.
That is also why Ramraj was shocked when his colleagues urged him to leave the office in Khartoum on Saturday morning.
"It was a normal Saturday morning in the office. It’s when you plan your day and all that. The weekends here are Friday and Saturday. But at the time being, we open on a Saturday morning. I’ve got to be at the office. And then my driver came and said:’ We got to go! We got to go!’ I could see he was panicking. He grabbed my laptop bag and pushed me out of the office. He got me to the car and we started driving against the traffic on a one-way street just to get out of the area. As we were driving, we started hearing gunshots," he said.
Thanks to his driver’s daring efforts, Ramraj reached his apartment building shortly afterwards and began to hide inside while the war raged through the streets all around.
Bullet as memento
The ongoing heavy fighting in the Sudanese capital and surrounding areas is the result of a power struggle between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has been the head of the Sudanese army and leader of the country's ruling council since 2019, and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that helped topple the civilian government in a military coup in October 2021.
The RSF forces had been focusing on trying to take control of the Presidential Palace in Khartoum, which is an important symbol of power in the country.
Unfortunately for Ramraj, Tara Apartments, the building where he is staying, is located only about 0.6 miles from the Presidential Palace.
"Our location is pretty close to the Presidential Palace and we’re in central Khartoum. Around us, it’s a bit crazy as you hear gunfire all the time. You hear the shells going off. It’s very scary," Ramraj said.
The heavy gunfire even caused damage to his building.
"This morning, the gunfight came from across the road from where we are. Suddenly, we had bullets coming into our building and shattered out front window. But thank goodness that nobody was injured. Actually, I have the bullet in my acquisition as a civilian from a war," Ramraj said, while showing a picture of the bullet he collected to Sputnik.
Shortage of basic supplies
Just like other civilians caught in the ongoing warfare in Khartoum, Ramraj began to worry whether he would have enough basic supplies such as food, water and medicine, as the fighting continued for more than five days.
"More importantly, people are running short on the stock as it’s been four days without any supplies. You know, the older people need medication. They need water and they need food. Basically, you don’t stock up on a lot of groceries. You buy for the week. We shop every week just for the essentials," Ramraj said.
The businessman from South Africa became hopeful when he heard reports of a 24-hour ceasefire announced on late Tuesday. He thought it could offer him an opportunity to make a quick run to the shopping mall located only 0.3 miles from his building.
However, gunfire could be heard throughout the night on Tuesday and Ramraj said soldiers from the RSF even entered his building on Wednesday morning.
Fortunately for Ramraj, he still had enough food to last him about another week and he had water filters in his apartment giving him a secure supply of clean drinking water. Additionally, power, water and communications including internet and mobile services were still available in his building, unlike in other parts of the city.
"I think that they don’t want to totally destroy the country. I think here they just want to take over the airport and the presidential palace to show that they have control of the country. In most coups in the world, the first thing to do is to go for the president’s palace. You got the military trying to protect it and [the RSF] trying to attack it," he said.
Nevertheless, as the fighting continued in the streets around him, Ramraj needed to figure out a way to cope with the stress of living under such conditions.
"I'm trying to keep my mind occupied. I’m actually writing a book. That’s something that keeps myself occupied. And I have my friends and family members that I keep chatting with," he said.
Ramraj added that he had to go through a 10-month quarantine in Nairobi, Kenya in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That experience of being isolated from his family also taught him how to cope with the situation better.
"We contacted our embassy and they also suggested us to stay put until they could try to get us out. But there’s no way they can because the airport’s closed. If they try to take us out of here either to South Sudan or Ethiopia, because those are the closest two borders. It’s about 4-5 hours drive just to get there. When we get to the embassies there, they could give us some shelters, water or food there. That’s why I think it’s best to stay where we are. We have enough basics here. Hopefully, we can get over this thing with the least amount of pain and trauma," he said.
At least, for Ramraj, he does not have to worry about the safety of his family members, including his brother and his daughters, since they are all living in South Africa.
The South African businessman tried to contact his embassy to find out if there would be any options for extraction from the danger zone in Sudan. Unfortunately, as the airport was partially destroyed and was a focal point of the ongoing warfare, it would be impossible for him to leave the country even if he could reach the airport.
Helping local communities
As someone who had worked in a number of countries in Africa, Ramraj said he would be willing to figure out a way to help the local communities in Sudan once the military conflict is over.
"My mind is already racing on how to help the people. When I was in Kenya, I went to the villages and asked the schools to find out what they needed. One of things we didn’t realize was that urinal tract infection was huge among teenage girls, because they didn’t have running toilets, especially in the villages. In two and a half weeks, with the aid of the South African Embassy and one of the banks, I managed to secure 1.5 million packs of sanitary pads from a pharmaceutical company and sent them to the villages," he said.
Ramraj added that he had already reached out to a number of organizations specializing in providing humanitarian aid. The only challenge was how to deliver this aid to Sudan while the heavy fighting was still raging through the capital city.
"I'm South African. Africa is my continent. I’ve visited different countries in Africa and I quite enjoyed it. And more importantly, empowering the people of Africa and passing on the knowledge. That’s why I’m here," he said.
