The Amanah is the latest boat to arrive at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah as part of a major evacuation effort.
It’s been a long, exhausting journey of at least 12 hours across the Red Sea from Port Sudan for all of its more than 2000 passengers of 80 nationalities – including Saudis and Iranians.
But it has been a passage to safety on this civilian vessel chartered by the Saudi military.
Passengers wave and smile from the upper decks. Waiting on the wharf below are diplomats waiting to receive their nationals alongside a long line of luxury buses and Saudi forces.
There are flowers of welcome but also wheelchairs and ambulances to receive the injured and the ill who fled this descent into war in Sudan.
Like all countries in this region, Saudi Arabia has longstanding interests and influence in Sudan but right now the world’s powers are coming together to speak with one voice – to urgently end the fighting.