美国国家公共电台 NPR--A Sudanese-American journalist recounts his experience fleeing Khartoum

A Sudanese-American journalist recounts his experience fleeing Khartoum

Transcript¹

More than 100,000 people have fled Sudan since the conflict between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group known as Rapid Support Forces erupted.

Sudanese-American journalist Isma'il Kushkush was in Sudan working on a reporting project and taking care of some family matters when full-on war broke out in Khartoum, the country's capital. For eight days, he found himself trapped in a building. When food and other supplies began to run out, KushKush and 32 people other people he was trapped with — including children and the elderly — knew they had to leave.

Getting out of the building was just the beginning of a terrifying ten-day journey to get out of Sudan, and across the border into Egypt. Eventually he arrived to safety, and reflected on the experience in an interview with NPR's Leila Fadel.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Some of the excerpts² did not air in the broadcast version.

There was a debate about whether or not to leave the building. We did not think we would get a direct hit because the trajectory³ of the gunfire was parallel to the building. We could have been hit by stray bullets, but we were fearful that our soldiers might storm the building to take over the building or possibly be hit by a misguided missile strike. We were a few blocks away from the Republican Palace. We would hear the sounds of fire from jet fighters. So that was our major concern.

We thought the building was the safest option. Water was low, food was low, and we were trying to coordinate⁴ with some groups to leave the building in contact with the Rapid Support Forces. But it was always too dangerous to leave ... After three attempts failed, there were negotiations⁵ with some soldiers outside to allow the people in the building, including six children, and some elderly people, to walk down the street. The soldiers agreed and said our passage would be safe to a certain point, but they couldn't guarantee after that.

On walking out of Khartoum

We were divided into two groups. One continued westward⁶ to cross the great bridge into Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city across the White Nile. A group decided⁷ to go southward in Khartoum to west Khartoum, where we had arrangements to stay in an apartment. Perhaps for an hour, we walked and looked at how the city had been destroyed, many shops looted. We saw a city bus, and an older woman ran to it asking if it was leaving the city. The bus was on its way to Egypt. We said we'd like to go to Egypt on this bus if space allowed. Even if we just sat on the floor of the bus. At this point, five of us were able to continue the journey, paying for our seats to stay on this bus, to head northward⁸ to Egypt.

On reaching the border between Sudan and Egypt

It took us one day just to get to the actual gate. Food was scarce, water scarce, access to restrooms. Some slept on the bus, some on the sidewalk. The next day, the bus was able to move into the space between the Sudan and Egypt gate. We spent another day there trying to get our exit visas from Sudan and then our entry visas to Egypt. All of that took almost three days.

The cost of traveling and trying to get out increased by the hour. We paid $330 for the seat, which cost $200 the day before. I hear it's up to $700, $800 now. Most Sudanese people who left in the first days were the Sudanese middle class. Those who could afford to leave, those who left Khartoum, were the lucky ones.

On his desire to document what he has witnessed

I had been wanting to write an essay about the city of Khartoum, and walking through the streets and seeing the destruction of old buildings. Places you have memories of. To see how in one week the destruction came upon those places, and not to know where some friends and relatives are.

On Sudan's future

With the [Sudanese] revolution in 2019, there was great hope that that would be the final episode of instability and that there would be a genuine transition into democracy. I think these events of the last few weeks put a further dent⁹ into that dream.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 excerpts   

n.摘录，摘要( excerpt的名词复数 )；节选（音乐，电影）片段

参考例句：

• Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music. 一些文艺复光时期的弥撒的选节被不适当地加入到了格鲁克平淡无味的唐璜音乐中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is editing together excerpts of some of his films. 他正在将自己制作的一些电影的片断进行剪辑合成。 来自辞典例句

3 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

4 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

5 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

6 westward   

n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西

参考例句：

• We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
• Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 northward   

adv.向北；n.北方的地区

参考例句：

• He pointed his boat northward.他将船驶向北方。
• I would have a chance to head northward quickly.我就很快有机会去北方了。

9 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。