[1/3] Ahmad Shams, a 59-year-old Lebanese businessman who had lived in Sudan for the last 17 years, gestures as he attends an interview with Reuters at the Lebanese restaurant and hotel Assaha, following his repatriation back to Beirut, Lebanon April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
BEIRUT, April 27 (Reuters) – As Lebanese businessman Ahmad Shams sheltered in the hotel he ran in Khartoum from the gunfire and shelling that erupted there this month, it brought back flashbacks of the civil war that had shattered Lebanon's capital in his youth.
"It's the same picture – there are militias, there are international interests. War is just as intense in Sudan as it was in Lebanon for us," he said after returning to Beirut.
Shams, 59, who lived in Sudan for 17 years, had set up a hotel and restaurant in a prime location near Khartoum's main airport and ministries. When fighting flared between Sudan's army and a paramilitary force on April 15, those sites became targets.
He fled with his wife, 10-year-old son – even their cat – alongside other Lebanese, but he said they had to rely on evacuation help from the Saudi Arabian authorities not those of his native Lebanon, a nation facing its deepest economic and political crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.
Returning to a country with its own crisis has not felt like a homecoming after so many years abroad.
"We've returned to a country that's already collapsing. If there had been a choice to go somewhere else, I would not have come to Lebanon," he said.
More than 60 Lebanese have been evacuated so far from Sudan, including some there briefly for business and others who had made Sudan their home.
"Now that I'm in Lebanon, I feel like I'm travelling to another country, like I'm in exile," Shams said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
New York will return three antiquities worth $725,000 to the people of Yemen, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on Friday, as part of a criminal investigation into a Manhattan-based private collector.
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.
Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology.
The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs.
The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals.
Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile.
Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts.
Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
© 2023 Reuters. All rights reserved