Wife died of starvation in Sudan after Briton shot by snipers seeking food

ELDERLY LONDON HOTELIER AND PARTNER ‘ABANDONED’ YARDS FROM BRITISH EMBASSY IN WAR ZONE

AN elderly British man who lives just “steps away” from the UK embassy in Sudan was shot by snipers and his wife died of starvation after being left behind in the war-torn country, their family said today.

London hotel owner Abdalla Sholgami, 85, and disabled Alaweya Rishwan, 80, did not get help despite British troops coming to rescue staff from the UK’s diplomatic mission in Khartoum.

Relatives told the BBC that they were instead directed to travel 25 miles across a war zone to reach an evacuation flight but were unable to do so.

The fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a power struggle has led to a collapse of order. Stocks of food, cash and essentials are rapidly dwindling, and mass looting has hit banks, embassies, aid warehouses and churches.

Mr Sholgami was eventually forced to leave the house to find food and water but was shot three times — in his hand, chest and lower back — by snipers.

He survived but his wife was left to fend for herself and it was impossible for any family members to reach her in an area that was surrounded by gunmen. She was later found dead in the property by an official from the Turkish embassy and her body has not been buried. Mr Sholgami’s granddaughter Azhaar said the UK embassy is a “maximum four steps away”, adding: “I was informed they had 100 troops who came and evacuated their staff. They could not cross the road? I’m still very disappointed in them. What happened to my grandparents was a crime against humanity, not only by the RSF, not only by the [Sudanese army] but by the British embassy, because they were the only ones that could have prevented this from happening to my grandparents,” she told the BBC.

She said the UK Government had done nothing to support them and have not been in touch since May 3, which was when the last evacuation flight to the UK took off. The Foreign Office said the couple’s case was “extremely sad”, adding: “The ongoing military conflict means Sudan remains dangerous. The UK is taking a leading role in the diplomatic efforts to secure peace in Sudan.

“Our ability to provide consular assistance is severely limited and we cannot provide in-person support within Sudan”. More than 2,300 people were evacuated by the UK Government on 28 flights since the fighting began in April. It has displaced more than 1.3 million people, the UN migration agency said this week.

The International Organisation for Migration said the clashes have forced most of them to leave their homes to safer areas inside Sudan.

About 320,000 others have fled to the neighbouring countries of Egypt, South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic and Libya. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said a total of 2,450 people were helped during the “longest and largest” evacuation of any Western country. The Government said the majority of those evacuated were British nationals and their dependants.

A planned seven-day ceasefire in Sudan intended to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid was broken earlier this week with reports of sporadic gunfire and fighter jets flying above homes. The war in Sudan could become a “tragedy of global significance”, the United Nation’s aid chief has warned,

Martin Griffiths, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the intense clashes were a “dramatic atrocity”. “It has got all the makings of a tragedy of global relevance and global significance”, Mr Griffiths told BBC Radio 4.