How the war in Sudan is separating Hyderabadi families

Some Indians including Hyderabadis tie knots in the African country

Jeddah: The fracturing of families underpins many stories of displacement in Sudan, where fighting has erupted in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere, due to a vicious power struggle within the country’s military leadership.

Some Indians including Hyderabadis tie the knots amidst the blue skies of the Nile delta in the African country. The conflicts and tensions in Sudan are not new for Indians, however, the ongoing conflict that erupted on April 15 is a matter of concern for them, not like before.

When Rafat Unissa married to a Sudanese national in Hyderabad some eight years ago she didn’t even imagine that one day she would return with her four children to her parent’s home back in India.

She is one among some Hyderabadi poverty ridden girls married to Sudanese and settled in African country. Though she is married to a Sudanese national yet she chose to remain as an Indian Citizen. Also, her four children – two sons and two daughters – also Indian nationals.

‘I can’t risk the life of my children in Sudan and decided to return to my home India’, she told this correspondent over the phone from Port Sudan while waiting to be airlifted by Indian Air Force aircraft.

The family of Mohammed Ziauddin of BHEL Ramachandrapuram is in more fractured. Settled in Sudan three decades ago, his two sons married African women. When war erupted they left for neighbouring Eretria with their wives as foreigners their African wives weren’t able to avail Operation Kaveri meant for Indians.

The father decided to return to Hyderabad along with their mother and his Hyderabad employees. He was operating an industrial pipes manufacturing plant family.

In another case, a man from the Lungar House area of Hyderabad (whose identity is withheld) has been living in Sudan for many years. A former resident of Dubai, he settled in Sudan and married a Sudanese woman.

His case is peculiar and more interesting, he is already married in India and his first wife is living in Hyderabad along with the children.

While working in Sudan, he fell in love with a local woman and married her. The Hyderabadi is not ready to depart from her Sudanese wife and return home. Neither can he bring his Sudanese wife to India.

Also, he is apprehensive of his Indian wife in case he brings his Sudanese wife to India, according to his friends.

All these Hyderabadis who are desperate to come to Hyderabad are full of praise for the Indian Government and its Operation Kaveri mission.

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