STORY: Refugees in Egypt wish for peace on World Refugee Day
SHOOTING TIME: June 18, 2024
DATELINE: June 20, 2024
LENGTH: 00:03:14
LOCATION: Cairo
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of refugee boys playing a football game in Cairo
2. various of Kamal Mahmoud, a Sudanese coach
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (Arabic): KAMAL MAHMOUD, Sudanese football coach living in Cairo
4. various of Kamal Mahmoud and refugee boys
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (Arabic): KAMAL MAHMOUD, Sudanese football coach living in Cairo
6. various of refugee boys playing a football game
7. SOUNDBITE 3 (Arabic): AHMED KHAMIS HASABALLAH, Palestinian journalist living in Cairo
8. various of refugee boys playing a football game
9. SOUNDBITE 4 (Arabic): AHMED KHAMIS HASABALLAH, Palestinian journalist living in Cairo
10. various of Ahmed Khamis Hasaballah, Palestinian journalist living in Cairo
11. SOUNDBITE 5 (Arabic): AHMED KHAMIS HASABALLAH, Palestinian journalist living in Cairo

STORYLINE:

A dozen refugees and expatriates from Sudan, South Sudan, and other countries, were playing a football game at a sports academy in the Egyptian capital Cairo, while tens of others were supporting them, feeling safe and secure after fleeing conflicts.
   
Although they hailed the warm welcome and friendly treatment they received from Egyptians, which made them feel at home, they wished on World Refugee Day, which falls on June 20, that peace would prevail, conflicts would come to an end, and they could go back home.
   
Kamal Mahmoud, a Sudanese living in Cairo, works as a coach at the football academy.
   
The man, in his 50s, came on a visit to Egypt 15 days before the internal conflict erupted in Sudan last year and couldn't go back. 

SOUNDBITE 1 (Arabic): KAMAL MAHMOUD, Sudanese football coach living in Cairo
"The way back was closed, and my brothers there strongly advised me not to return. Even some of our neighbors and their children all came here, but the men are still there (in Sudan), while their wives and children came from Sudan and are living here."

Mahmoud doesn't consider himself a refugee but a man living in his second home.

He used to frequent neighboring Egypt with his family before the conflict, but he never imagined he would have to stay that long, he recalled. Now coaching at the academy is a key source of income to provide for his family, in addition to his wife's income from private tuition, and some irregular aid sent by friends abroad.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Arabic): KAMAL MAHMOUD, Sudanese football coach living in Cairo
"There is no difference between an Egyptian and a Sudanese. We are all brothers. We are all children of the Nile. I hope that peace will prevail in all parts of the world, not just in Sudan, and I hope that peace will prevail in Palestine and elsewhere."

World Refugee Day is marked by the United Nations on June 20 every year "to honor refugees around the globe."
   
Since the ongoing deadly Israeli-Palestinian conflict that started in early October last year in Gaza, Egypt has received tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking safety.
   
Among them was Ahmed Khamis Hasaballah, a 30-year-old photojournalist, who said that he fled Gaza two months ago because of the brutal Israeli attacks that didn't even exclude journalists.

SOUNDBITE 3 (Arabic): AHMED KHAMIS HASABALLAH, Palestinian journalist living in Cairo
"We experienced very difficult situations because the war was fierce. In terms of press coverage, we were directly exposed to targeting from the occupation troops. Approximately 140 journalists were martyred (killed), and we have many injured journalists."

Hasaballah's family had eight members before his father was killed in the current Israeli war on Gaza. Now he's in Egypt, his mother and siblings are in Gaza.

SOUNDBITE 4 (Arabic): AHMED KHAMIS HASABALLAH, Palestinian journalist living in Cairo
"I am here today but my mind and all my thoughts are in Gaza, because I have not seen my family for eight whole months now, and I do not know anything about them."

He praised the Egyptian people for embracing the Palestinians and treating them "like family," hoping the war would stop, and he could reunite with his family in Gaza.

SOUNDBITE 5 (Arabic): AHMED KHAMIS HASABALLAH, Palestinian journalist living in Cairo
"The first thing we ask of the whole world today as refugees is that the fierce war on the Gaza Strip is stopped. This is the first thing. We wish for all the refugees to return to their lands."

Egypt currently hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees mostly from Sudan, Syria, and Palestine, according to the Egyptian government.
   
Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a recent report that Egypt is now home to more than 600,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers from 62 nationalities.
   
Some Egyptian experts believe that although refugees are welcomed in Egypt, their presence needs to be regulated and Egypt should receive funding from the UN to cover the costs of hosting and providing services for them, as the country is already suffering from economic pressures.
   
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Cairo.
(XHTV)