'My grandmother died alone': tragedy in Khartoum

STORY: Azhaar Sholgami's grandmother died alone.

Her body still lies unburied at the family home in Sudan's capital Khartoum.

This is a story that echoes those of other members of Sudan's diaspora.

Of people desperately trying to evacuate their loved ones from a city that rapidly descended into a warzone.

“Yeah, we continued aggressively contacting everyone, sleepless nights. We had over 30 attempts of evacuations to try and go in and get my grandparents out, but unfortunately nothing worked."

Sholgami is a student in New York. Her grandparents - Alaweya Reshwan and Abdullah Sholgami - were living near the military's headquarters in Khartoum.

It's a business district and, with no neighbors nearby, her grandparents were stranded.

The power had been cut so they could not charge their phones.

People have tried to drive to the house, Sholgami says, and been met by gunfire.

Sholgami says fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces raided the house for essentials like food and water.

Other Khartoum residents have reported the RSF taking over people's homes - which the group has denied.

After ten days, Sholgami's grandfather went to get supplies.

He was shot three times and taken to hospital.

"They've been married for 60 years. I know that my grandfather would not leave. He still doesn't know we don't know how to break it to him. He keeps on saying that you know, Where's Mama? Let's go pick up Mama."

Sholgami's grandfather is a British citizen as well as holding Sudanese nationality.

Much of her anger is directed at the British embassy for what she sees as their reluctance to help.

"Bear in mind, we weren't even asking, the first time we reached out to the embassy, we weren't even asking for evacuation. We were just asking them to drop water and food, and just to confirm that they're okay. And any basic human who feels, who values, has some sort of, you know, sense of humanity would do so."

A British government spokesperson said the UK had carried out the longest and largest evacuation of any Western country from Sudan, and that its evacuation was open to British nationals and eligible family members.

But it was a Turkish diplomat who eventually notified Sholgami of her grandmother's death.

She does not know when her grandmother passed, but was told that the body was decaying.

"It breaks my heat that she died of starvation, that she died in the heat, with no electricity in the midst of the most heated region in Khartoum, where there is bombings almost 24 hours, there's ammunition 24 hours, and also that she died alone."

Sholgami says her mission now is to get her grandparents justice for the oppression she says they experienced - and the discrimination during the evacuation process.

But meanwhile the family is still attempting to get her grandfather out of the city and is trying to ensure her grandmother is laid to rest.

Family members still can't reach the house.

She says they are begging anyone to at least bury her grandmother in her own backyard.