Gallabat: People fleeing the war in Sudan slowly make their way closer to safety along an endless line of minibuses that line the road that connects the city of Gedaref in the southeast of Sudan with the Ethiopian border.

According to Oktay Oglu, a Turkish engineer who worked at a factory in the capital Khartoum before evacuating with his family, families have been "sleeping on the ground out in the open" there. Both locals and visitors have travelled here to escape more than two weeks of brutal fighting between armies loyal to opposing generals, with civilians caught in the crossfire.

The minibuses move very slowly. There are only 10 metres separating the flags of Sudan and Ethiopia at the end of the road leading to the border.

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But there, there will be yet another lengthy wait.
Oglu waited days for a relative lull in the fighting that would allow them to escape, and then he made the arduous journey from Khartoum to Gedaref with his wife and three children.

200 kilometres south of the capital, in the city of Wad Madani, where witnesses claim life is still largely normal, they first arrived. They stayed the night there before travelling another 250 kilometres east to Gedaref.

They arrived at the border with Ethiopia and the small settlement of Gallabat, with its bare-bones homes made of wood and dried grass, at the end of the road.

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They had to wait until the crossing opened again at 8 a.m. the following morning because they arrived after it closed at 5 p.m.

People from all over the world were gathered at the crossing, hoping to get to the other side as quickly as possible.
About 9,000 people, mostly foreigners, including many Turks, crossed the border, according to a crossing official.

As of Tuesday, according to data from the UN's International Organisation for Migration, 3,500 people of 35 different nationalities had sought refuge in Ethiopia.

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More than 40% of them are Turks, while 14% are Ethiopians who had previously lived in Sudan and are now returning.