AN 85-Year-Old British citizen in Sudan was shot and injured by snipers and his wife then died of starvation despite repeated calls for assistance made to the nearby British embassy in Sudan, their family has told BBC News.
Abdalla Sholgami lived with his disabled 80-year-old wife, Alaweya Rishwan, just over the road from the UK’s diplomatic mission in Khartoum – an area that saw some of the fiercest fighting at the start of the conflict last month.
But the London hotel owner was never offered support to travel from their home to the airfield where evacuation flights departed from, even when a British military team was sent to evacuate diplomatic staff from the mission, the family says.
Instead, the elderly couple, who had no food or water, were told to make their own way to the airfield 40km (25 miles) outside Khartoum – which would have meant crossing a warzone.
The UK foreign office acknowledged to the BBC that the Sholgamis’ case was “extremely sad” but added that “our ability to provide consular assistance is severely limited and we cannot provide in-person support within Sudan”.
Only diplomatic staff and their families were given assistance to reach the evacuation points. All other British citizens were told to make their own way.
The violence in Khartoum was triggered by a power struggle between former allies – the leaders of the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Fighting began on 15 April, and the couple’s family says that every avenue was used to try and get assistance from soon after that date, including personal phone calls to the embassy.
On 22 April a family member emailed a British MP in an effort to get the appeals for help answered.
That night, the embassy was evacuated but Mr Sholgami and his wife were not given any assistance.
