Thousands flee crisis-hit Sudan in 'brain drain'

KHARTOUM: Asaad Abdulmajid is saying goodbye to Sudan and its crisis-hit economy after having found a job in Saudi Arabia with a salary he says is more than 20 times what he earned from a government hospital at home.

Abdulmajid, 29, has joined tens of thousands of Sudanese medical workers, technicians, academics and others fleeing the country for better opportunities abroad, according to official statistics.

"Here in Sudan my total monthly salary was 600 pounds," about $86 at the black market exchange rate.

"Now I have a contract with a private hospital in Saudi Arabia that will pay me 8,000 rials ($2,133)," the doctor said at a government office crowded with Sudanese completing their paperwork to emigrate.