War forces Greek family to shut storied Khartoum hotel

Record ID: 1722251

  • Title: War forces Greek family to shut storied Khartoum hotel
  • Date: 28th April 2023
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (APRIL 28, 2023) (REUTERS) HOTELIER, THANASIS PAGOULATOS, AND HIS WIFE, ANGELA, IN THE KITCHEN OF THEIR APARTMENT VARIOUS OF THANASIS WATCHING NEWS PROGRAMME ON LAPTOP THANASIS SEATED AT THE TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) HOTELIER, 79, THANASIS PAGOULATOS, SAYING: "I'm nearly 80, I have lived all my life there, so Khartoum, or Sudan, is part of my life. It's as if a part of mine (me) is taken from us. It's something that we could never think or dream could happen." THANASIS' HANDS THANASIS SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) HOTELIER, 79, THANASIS PAGOULATOS, SAYING: "In the morning, early, around seven o'clock, they (Rapid Support Forces) came. We had no chance to take anything and then what could we take since we knew we were going to be on foot? The cars, the transport had problems to take us, it did not materialise. They said just walk down there, so we walked to the mosque, there were some people who were killed, some bodies." ATHENS, GREECE (RECENT - APRIL 25, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF THANASIS' FAMILY GREETING HIM AT ATHENS AIRPORT AFTER HE WAS EVACUATED FROM SUDAN ATHENS, GREECE (APRIL 28, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) HOTELIER, 79, THANASIS PAGOULATOS, SAYING: "In Sudan, the hotel, The Acropole (has been open) since 1952. Sudan has a history of military coups. All over, since independence, we had seen a lot of coups, a lot of changes, but never such a thing, that (the current war) was something really out of this world."
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2023 13:34
  • Keywords: Acropole Hotel Athens Evacuation Evacuee Greece Khartoum Sudan War
  • Location: ATHENS, GREECE / KHARTOUM, SUDAN
  • City: ATHENS, GREECE / KHARTOUM, SUDAN
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001823527042023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A FOLLOW-UP FROM EDIT 7882-SUDAN-POLITICS/GREECE-EVACUEE
    Thanasis Pagoulatos kept his family-owned Acropole Hotel in Khartoum operating through all the coups, wars, and uprisings that periodically ripped through Sudan - until the war that this month tore through the capital finally forced him out.
    "It's as if a part of mine is taken from us," said the 79-year-old Greek, now in his Athens home, his voice cracking with emotion.
    "I'm nearly 80. I have lived all my life there, so Khartoum - or Sudan - is part of my life."
    Among the city's oldest hotels, the Acropole was opened in 1952 by Pagoulatos's father Panaghis, who came to Khartoum from Greece in 1944, in the final days of World War Two.
    The unassuming, sand-coloured colonial building in central Khartoum has played host to foreign journalists, aid workers, diplomats, and business people throughout its 71-year-long history.
    "It has always been, from the very beginning, a family business," said Pagoulatos.
    Thanasis and his younger brothers George and Makis - the latter of which was born in the Acropole itself - have run the hotel for decades, and their charm and attentive service have earned it a legendary reputation among its foreign clientele.     
    When fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), intensified in Khartoum this week, Pagoulatos and his sister-in-law were holed up in the Acropole with four guests and three staff for 10 days without power or running water. 
    When RSF soldiers forced them to abandon the hotel, they fled on foot, in streets Pagoulatos said were littered with bodies, taking only their passports, his laptop, and a change of clothes.
    Hundreds of people have been killed in nearly two weeks of conflict between the army and the RSF, which are locked in a power struggle threatening to destabilise the wider region.
    "We had seen a lot of coups, a lot of changes, but never such a thing," said Pagoulatos, a tall, soft-spoken man who arrived in Athens this week as part of a wider exodus of foreign nationals. "That was something really out of this world."
    In recent years, as Khartoum was gripped by a growing number of street protests, the owners decided to move into the hotel. And even now, Pagoulatos said leaving Sudan had never crossed his mind. 
    "Even my movements in the last moments was finding somewhere safe to stay ... for the situation to calm down, and then to continue my work," he said. "But leaving Sudan? No."
    (Production: Stelios Misinas, Hannah Ellison)
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