Imagine having to pack up and flee your home of more than a decade, living out of suitcases as you make your way through border posts and foreign countries towards safety.
For one family, that became reality in April when they had to flee war-torn Sudan and travel to Gqeberha.
Ilse Young and her three-year-old twins, Isabella and Duncan, arrived back in Nelson Mandela Bay on Wednesday, three weeks after fleeing their home on the outskirts of Khartoum.
Her husband, Adam, stayed behind in Egypt to secure passage for the family’s two beloved Scottish terriers.
The conflict started on April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, killing at least 550 people and displacing thousands of others,
Speaking to Weekend Post’s sister publication The Herald on Wednesday, Ilse — a teacher who had lived in that country with her husband for 15 years — said they thought they would be safe but realised as the fighting in Khartoum spread that they needed to pack necessities and head for the border.
“We lived on the outskirts of Khartoum, and usually certain hours of the evening were quiet and we were able to go outside and be in our little garden.
“Then suddenly a fighter jet flew very low over our house, on its way to bomb a nearby bridge.
“That’s when we realised this is getting too close for comfort.”
What followed was a long bus ride from Khartoum to Aswan, in southern Egypt, and the chaos at the border came with a silver lining. From there, they travelled back to SA.
And while most of the South Africans who had been trapped by the conflict have been evacuated, there are still millions of people in that country whose lives are endangered every day the fighting continues.
As we all know, any conflict is devastating.
It not only causes immeasurable human suffering in the moment, but also the destruction of infrastructure and economic systems, all of which leave long-lasting scars on societies.
Soldiers and civilians alike are killed, maimed or traumatised, leaving long-lasting physical and psychological scars on individuals and communities.
Whatever the reason for this conflict, we hope for a speedy end to it, without further loss of life and devastation.
HeraldLIVE