A Sligo-based Sudanese doctor has said it is a "miracle" he and his family managed to escape into Eygpt after spending five days on a bus at the border.
Dr Jimmy Williams, a doctor at Sligo University Hospital and his wife Sara Joseph, a pharmacist in the town, were visiting family in Khartoum for two weeks when fighting broke out.
He described a "chaotic" situation with buildings being bombed around them.
"My wife was crying, she was so scared, my mom was terrified, my father was very anxious and depressed.
"We didn't know what to do, we spent all the time under the beds basically."
Dr Williams said members of the Rapid Support Forces, one of the paramilitary groups involved in the fighting, were stationed outside his parents home.
"Every day they came at 9am and stopped all vehicles, taking money, mobile phones, and if you don't stop they will shoot you," he said.
"In front of my eyes they shot one guy on a motorcycle who didn't stop."
He said with no electricity, water or food they decided to flee to Eygpt, describing the journey to the border as dangerous, stressful and very expensive.
They finally found a bus to take them to the Argeen Landport but he said the cost of tickets were "sky high".
"They are usually less than $50 to get to the Landport but they had increased to $500 and by the time I reached Argeen Landport the tickets went to $1,000," he said.
When they arrived at the Argeen Landport they joined a long queue of buses waiting to cross the border.
They spent five days there with two people in their 90's on their bus.
Dr Williams said there was water for the first three days but then it ran out and there was no electricity, toilets or medicine.
"People were dying," he said.
He described how three elderly people died in one of the buses behind them.
The people on that bus "didn't know what to do, where to bury them, like they're there in the bus and they can't do anything about it".
"I saw patients with thrombosis because of the long waiting time [on the buses]".
He said the situation at the Argeen Landport was chaotic and some children were alone unable to find their parents there.
Finally after five days, their bus crossed into Egypt.
"It's a miracle my family got into Egypt," he said.
Dr Williams, his wife and his parents arrived in Cairo yesterday and have tickets booked to return to Ireland on Saturday.
