Sudan refugees bring off-season tourism to Egypt
ASWAN, Egypt: Thousands fleeing war in Sudan have taken refuge in the Egyptian city of Aswan on the Nile, where families are helping keep the tourism industry afloat far from the horrors they left behind.
“We finally made it to Aswan,” said Hisham Ali, 54, who reached Egypt after an odyssey that took his family south of the fighting in Khartoum, before heading over 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) north again to the Egyptian border.
Thousands of people have been stuck there since Egypt tightened its visa rules in July.
“Aswan is beautiful, its people are kind,” the former government employee told AFP from a rest house in the popular holiday destination.
During the winter months, the city fills with Egyptian and international travelers — drawn by the abundance of Pharaonic sites, views of the Nile River and warm weather.
When Sudanese families began arriving in April, the city’s many boat captains and business owners were winding down for the low season in the summer heat.
They did not expect an influx of refugees, or the much-needed business they have brought to Egypt’s struggling economy.
“I’ve taken my family for a fun day out, I want them as much as they can to forget the days of war and bombs and air strikes and gun shots,” Ali said, as the sound of children playing rang out around him .
Around 310,000 people have crossed from Sudan into Egypt since war broke out on April 15 between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
“We fled Khartoum three months ago,” said Zeinab Ibrahim, 30, after two months of sheltering from constant air strikes, artillery fire and street battles.
