Chicago Family of Six Trapped in Deadly Sudan Chaos
An American family of six from Chicago is desperately attempting to escape the violent conflict in Sudan, which broke out only hours after they arrived in the country to visit relatives.
Engineer Azza Hamad arrived in Omdurman near the capital city of Khartoum with her husband, her two young children, her mother, and her brother on April 15. That same day, bloody clashes broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), former allies who worked together to topple the Sudanese government in 2021. Tensions that built up in the aftermath of the coup have now erupted into a power struggle that has killed some 500 people so far—including two American citizens.
“Everything was normal when they first arrived,” Azza’s father, Abubakr Hamad, told The Daily Beast from his home in Chicago. When his wife, Hanan, first called him at 8 a.m. and told him she had heard rumblings that “something might happen” in Sudan, he didn’t think it was cause for alarm, and told her to let his grandkids sleep in. “But then I heard from a friend that there is some movement in town—for the last two weeks, there were some little [clashes] here and there, but it seemed to be a serious time.”