Gold for safe passage: How a family of 12 escaped from Sudan

Raga Makawi, left, with her sister-in-law Tibyan Farid, right, and Tibyan's daughter on April 28, 2023, at the Argeen border crossing between Sudan and Egypt [Courtesy of Tibyan Farid]

I scrambled up the stairs for the 12th time that day. Since the outbreak of violence in Khartoum on April 15, I had been advocating for our departure to no avail. My parents, elderly and set in their ways, had pledged to die where they stood before being subjected to the adversity of displacement.

It was April 22, day eight of the fighting and already getting too late to leave.