Sudanese queue outside a passport office in Gedaref, desperate to renew the travel documents that will allow them to flee the fighting gripping the country. AFPPIX: Marwa Omar was one of hundreds who lined up at dawn to try and get passports in Port Sudan. Fifteen hours later, she still had nothing to show for it.
Since the authorities inaugurated a new passport office in the eastern city of Port Sudan in late August, hundreds of people have lined up all day, every day.Asked where she intended to go, Omar replied: “Anywhere but here. This isn’t a country any more.” Like Omar, many have flocked to the coastal city, which has so far been spared in the fighting and is now home to government officials, the United Nations and Sudan's only functioning airport.
“If you know someone inside who will get it done for you quickly, come. Otherwise don’t bother,“ Marwa Omar said, frustrated by the long wait and poor organisation.Those lucky enough to get inside the building have to enter “a cramped room, terrible heat and no chairs”, another applicant, Shehab Mohammed, told AFP.Over the noise of dozens of people trying to push their paperwork through, Fares Mohammed, who came to get a passport for his child, said: “At this rate, we’ll be here for months.
Sudan was already one of the world's poorest countries even before the war broke out, but now it has plunged into a horrific humanitarian crisis.