Irish mother forced to flee Sudan with her three children fears for life of husband left behind

Sarah Widaa described how she and her family faced gunfire as they rushed to the French embassy for evacuation.

Having been given just over an hour's notice to get to the building, the mother-of-three said she had told her children in the car "to duck, get down on the floor” as she and her husband fled from their home in the Kafouri area of Sudan's capital Khartoum.

"I was afraid," she told Sky News, but when she got to the embassy, the French "went above and beyond".

"I felt safer," she said. "They were armed. We were in the buses for over an hour. We left for the airbase.

"We stayed in the hangar for two hours. There was no food. There are Greeks there, Americans."

Ms Widaa added that her husband did not join them in the evacuation as he stayed to care for his father who has diabetes and is on medication.

She said she was "heartbroken" to leave them behind but asked that when her father-in-law's medication runs out "what is he going to do?"

Before they were told they would be evacuated, Ms Widaa revealed how the water supply at their home had been cut off for five days.

They had to instead try and buy water from the black market, but “we didn't have a lot of money at home, we were worried we would get looted," Ms Widaa said.

"It was really difficult. There's a lot of Irish citizens still in Sudan."

Ms Widaa said the day before the violence started she took her children to get ice creams.

"Everyone was out. The same area is now pitch black," she added.

Buildings were burnt and cars with bullet holes were in the middle of the street, she said.

Ms Widaa's eldest daughter, Nadine (nine) told Sky News that it was "scary" living in the Sudanese capital during the fighting.

She said: "We had to sleep on the floor and we're scared of bullets coming in.

"We were watching TV and a bullet hit our window, it was so loud. I was shaking until the end of the day."

Another Irish national, Cathy, was also among those to be safely evacuated.

The teacher, who has two sons and lives on a school campus, told Sky News the shooting "didn't stop for five days".

She said: "Our window exploded. We were under the mattress.”

One of her sons, Liam, said: “Mummy the glass hit me. It just bounced off me'."

Cathy and her family managed to sneak out of the school and they eventually made it to a safe place where they were then taken to a friend's house.

Ms Widaa who was airlifted out of Sudan with her children, arrived in Djibouti on Monday morning.

Ms Widaa said she hopes she can go back to her home, adding: "I have my house there. My kids have friends there, school there. We were happy."

On Sunday, the Irish Government announced members of the Defence Forces would be deployed to the country.

88 Irish citizens have been evacuated from Sudan so far but 100 are still in the country.