I was saved from death (literally) It was around two years ago during the summer of 2024 My family was in Sudan our home which is currently being torn apart by warlords since April 2023. We had to make the difficult decision to cross the border into Egypt by going with human smugglers (it's reckless I know but the situation was very desperate. It was either this or risk having our house broken into by RSF terrorists or get blown up by a stray missile) this decision worked out for other family members who went ahead and got a legal asylum under the UN office in the country. unfortunately the other alternative was to dig into our life savings and cough up 10k USD for a legal pass for the five of us They used to have an open border with Sudanese women, children and old men being allowed to enter visa free but once the war happened they decided to exploit the situation by charging 2000 usd per person. Anyone who got caught before they were granted legal asylum were thrown back into the warzone The problem with human smugglers is that you can't report anything they do to you to the police because you're both law breakers. They know this and exploit it. We paid a guy to get us all the way through the border in a decently air-conditioned car (the Sahara between Sudan and Egypt is one of the hottest places in the world its a death sentence to not have an a/c, this will become very relevant later) He took us from Port Sudan all the way until a camp roughly hours away from the border then just ditched us there. We spent the next 4 days living with a tribe called the Rashaidah in their tent-town waiting for the next driver to take us across the border into Egypt. The border is maintained by the Egyptian military so to cross during one of their shifts is a death sentence. We had no choice but to live there until the border was declared clear to cross Its already hot year round but it was freakin summer in that place, 45°c - 50°c is normal at that time. We were coping by staying in the shade and buying water bottles just to pour them on our heads. I drank one bottle every hour and still felt thirsty. My body was coping by sweating it all out. Tmi the sweat was so severe I used the bathroom only twice during the four day we were there. The tent-town was a hot spot for the smugglers to stock up on food and water before leaving. It was an interesting town now that I'm looking back at it. They hade a satellite based wifi going, solar panels for phone chargers and a really good restaurant. The night sky was freakin gorgeous you can see absolutely everything and the weather was actually cool by then. Unfortunately my youngest sister started showing signs of heatstroke on the 4th day as she developed an unstoppable nosebleed. Our anxiety was made worse by news of a child dying at the camp The same day the border was declared clear. Once again we tried to manage this situation by reducing the risks. Smugglers usually cramped as many people as possible into one pick up truck to maximize profits so my mum decided to pay them extra to give us breathing room in the vehicle by buying out other seats. Seats is a fancy term for a space on the back of their exposed trunk beds We decided to go at night. As expected a few hours into the border (from port Sudan to Aswan in egypt by car its 15 hours under perfect conditions) another driver passed us and seeing that we had a lot of space demanded that we take some people off his truck because it wasn't able to carry the weight. Mum protested that we paid more for this space but they ignored us and just cramed them with us anyway. Thankfully they didn't go too far as we still got leg room thankfully We underestimated how long this last leg of the trip would take and didn't carry enough water. The smugglers weren't just handling humans they were also picking up illegally mined gold. The driver stopped to chat with some miners and argued with them for hours on end. We felt like cattle as we were left to use the last of our water while they talked. The truck was feeling cramped and we mistakingly gave away some of our water to passers-bys to make room. After an hour so of driving the drivers decided that they were too sleepy to keep going so they stopped their cars to sleep I remember vividly feeling the back of my head hurt from dehydration as though my brain shriveled up and got stuck to its walls and having difficulty processing my body's presence. I was anemic so I had low blood-oxygen which puts me at risk of fainting during hot weather. I didn't realize that dry air can sap moisture just as badly as the sun could but slower. My fear was exacerbated when I overheard cries of horror from the second truck as I struggled to stay focused A family just lost their Father, he was diabetic, the heat made it impossible to bare. They refused to bury him out in the desert and insisted on wrapping his body in blanket until they reached the next town to give him a proper funeral. I can only imagine the trauma of being in their shoes. Anxious about their own survival while smelling the body of their parent the whole way. Their screams fell on deaf ears on the smugglers they just rolled aside and kept sleeping I've made peace with my imminent death. I remembered nearly blacking out twice due to anemia before in much friendlier 30°c conditions. I accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior but wasn't baptized then (most churches were bombed during the attack) I was in a lot of pain and didn't want to have a slow death by dehydration so I prayed asking God to only make this easier on me. The very second I finished my prayer I gasped as though all the moisture I lost from my lungs and throat was miraculously returned to me that very instant. I felt perfectly alert and my head didn't hurt anymore. It was insane how fast it all happened. Like I wasn't dying just a mere fraction of a second before. I had unbridled hope that I can go on, it was a rough and challenging life. Not going to lie, a part of me was looking forward to going back home to our Father but it wasn't my time yet Not long after a man coming from the opposite way from Egypt drove over to us, he was a charity worker who learned about the many record deaths happening in the border that summer. God bless him, he gave every person one scoop of water from his barrel enough to prevent dehydration. Another charitable person drove by to do the same. We got very lucky with them, not many take the risk to help out We watched anxiously as the sun began rising. This was going to get even harder. The drivers woke up and after enjoying some coffee, biscuits and chitchat they were ready to go. We reached Aswan in one piece
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Port Sudan
Red Sea port city serving as the seat of the SAF-aligned government since Khartoum fell.
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