No power, no phones: 2 Germans make harrowing escape from Khartoum

Horst Schauer and Mareike Roewekamp, a German couple who happened to be in Sudan on their honeymoon, recall their flight from Khartoum, where they had been stuck in a hotel for days, during a Reuters interview in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2023. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

Two German endurance athletes on a mission to run some 12,000 km (7,400 miles) between the northern- and southernmost tips of Africa had a sudden change in plans after being trapped in Sudan by fighting and having to find a way to get out of the country.

As part of their mission, Mareike Roewekamp, 41, and Horst Schauer, 67, were planning to run through 12 countries over at least eight months and already had Egypt and Tunisia under their belts when they were in Sudan this month.

They told Reuters they were at a hotel in the government district in Khartoum when they noticed military movements. "We realised pretty quickly that there would be no more flights and that we would have to stay in the hotel," said Schauer.

Horst Schauer and Mareike Roewekamp, a German couple who happened to be in Sudan on their honeymoon, show pictures and videos on their phone as they recall their flight from Khartoum, where they had been stuck in a hotel for days, during a Reuters interview in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2023. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

The couple stayed there for days, rationing the battery left on their mobile phones in order to check for messages.

"Every day there was this risk-benefit trade-off. Do I rather stay quiet and wait, wait in here and be safer here? Or do I have to go out at some point and see if I can get something to drink or start communicating and try to get out of this situation," said Roewekamp.

Soldiers came to the hotel after three or four days, and the couple were eventually forced to clear out of the hotel because the building was to be bombed. The soldiers told them to go to a big mosque, which they said would be a safe place.

Horst Schauer and Mareike Roewekamp, a German couple who happened to be in Sudan on their honeymoon, recall their flight from Khartoum, where they had been stuck in a hotel for days, during a Reuters interview in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2023. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

"We walked 300 metres, 400 metres. The first dead bodies were already lying there. And that was a completely open place. And that was anything but safe," Schauer said.

They then learned that German citizens should come to a collection point, a military base that was 25 kilometres away, and they were supposed to make their way there on their own.

"There was no bus, no convoy, nothing," said Schauer. "That's why so few Germans got there in the beginning, because they had to pass through a war zone to get there."

To get there, the couple paid 800 dollars for a 30-minute taxi ride, "the most expensive taxi ride of our lives," he added. They were flown back to Germany and arrived on Monday.

(Reporting by Claudia Doerries and Tobias Schlie, Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by William Maclean)