Port Sudan is a refuge for foreigners and families trying to escape the fighting

Transcript

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

Now, a sea voyage that's become one of the routes out of Sudan, at least for people with passports from other countries that they can go to - thousands are trying to flee Sudan after nearly three weeks of fighting between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group. NPR's Aya Batrawy went to Port Sudan to see the evacuation operation.

AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: I'm aboard a naval ship from Saudi Arabia that's crossing the Red Sea to Port Sudan, where thousands of people are waiting for their turn to leave the country.

It's pitch-dark outside. It is nighttime. We've been on this ship for a little over 10 hours. I don't see any lights in the distance at all. It's just the moon and the stars in the sky and this vast, open expanse of dark sea. But we're approaching the coast of Sudan very soon.

It takes nearly 12 hours, but we finally reached Port Sudan. I see a few families - women, children - exhausted and dragging whatever luggage and personal items they could carry. Sudanese soldiers secure the port. A Saudi officer, seated on a plastic chair, checks people's passports against a piece of paper with a handwritten list of names on it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).

BATRAWY: This ad hoc setup has become a kind of passport control center right next to tugboats. Several American citizens are making their way onto one of the tugboats that will take them to a Saudi naval vessel docked just offshore. U.S. embassy officials are standing off to the side to monitor and help.

JOHN BUTLER: I've only been here a few days - not much sleep. We get here. We figure out the process.

BATRAWY: That's John Butler, a defense attache with the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia. It's around midnight when we meet in Port Sudan. He tells me American officials have set up camp inside one of the hotels near here to help U.S. citizens evacuate from here. Butler tells me it's a stressful, tiring situation for everyone involved. But he says people are grateful to have gotten even this far - in eyesight of ships waiting to take them to safer grounds.

BUTLER: When people get here, they've just come out of a hellish situation, to be honest. They're scared when they get here, but they are happy when they reach a safe destination. They're happy when they see faces on the ground who are willing to help them. A lot of Sudanese are helping a lot of Sudanese. And it's amazing to see.

BATRAWY: He tells me a little more than 200 Americans are leaving Port Sudan this evening.

BUTLER: We're very proud of that. I'm very excited to see them, very happy with our relationship with Saudi Arabia, where they allow us the opportunity to do this - get our people out of a dangerous situation.

BATRAWY: Saudi Arabia says it has already helped almost 6,000 people evacuate on its ships. Nearly all of them are citizens of countries other than Sudan. The evacuees are given short-term visas in Saudi Arabia before they must travel onward. This route isn't open to most Sudanese, so tens of thousands have headed by land to neighboring countries like Egypt. But for those with foreign passports, the voyage to Saudi Arabia is the main way out of Sudan. Mohammed Sayid, a Saudi Sudanese national, is ready to depart from Port Sudan with his mother. They had been visiting family in the capital, Khartoum, last month when the fighting broke out.

MOHAMMED SAYID: (Non-English language spoken).

BATRAWY: He tells me he's praying for stability and peace.

We're on the tugboat now with a group of people from China. We're headed to the Saudi warship that's waiting offshore to make another journey across the Red Sea.

Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Port Sudan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.