Evacuation operations that began over the weekend continue on Wednesday, April 26 in Karthoum and in the Sudanese regions affected by the war between rival generals Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane and Mohammed Hamdan Daglo known as “Hemetti” for nearly two weeks . Like the United States, the European Union and Arab and Asian countries, several states on the African continent are working to repatriate their nationals.
Taking advantage of the relative calm caused by the 72-hour ceasefire concluded between the belligerents under the aegis of the United States, many convoys left the Sudanese capital in the direction of Egypt or Port-Sudan, the main country’s port on the Red Sea.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday April 25 the departure of 635 Egyptian citizens from Sudan, bringing the number of evacuees to 1,539. The day before, some were exfiltrated by land and others by plane.
On the Tunisian side, a military plane chartered for a similar operation took off Tuesday morning from the El-Aouina air base in the direction of Aswan airport, in Egypt. The return of evacuees was planned for the evening, on the tarmac of Tunis-Carthage airport. However, their number has not been disclosed.
The same day, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco, Mohamed Maâlainine, assured that the members of the Moroccan community evacuated from the Sudanese capital were in Port-Sudan. An airlift organized by the Royal Air Maroc company must ensure the return to the country of some 300 people.
The operation seems a little more complicated for Nigeria, which has around 3,000 nationals in Sudan, most of them students. The government deployed buses that arrived at the African International University meeting point in Khartoum on the evening of Tuesday, April 25 for evacuation via Cairo. News Point Nigeria reported that a set of five 200-seater buses arrived at the site, along with two trucks of security personnel as well as a small bus of embassy officials.
The spokesperson for the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Clayson Monyela, said on Tuesday evening on his Twitter account that “several members of the group evacuated [the day before] did not have travel documents (8 South Africans, 7 Angolans and one Lesotho national). They were refused entry into Egypt.” He also assures that they are safe and that the goal is for “everyone to go home”.
On Monday April 24, Côte d’Ivoire had chartered a bus which left Khartoum in the direction of Cairo, where the 47 evacuees, mostly students, must be taken care of by the embassy “while awaiting their repatriation in the best time limit “. One hundred and one Mauritanians were evacuated to Saudi Arabia.
While more than 20,000 refugees have crossed its border since the start of the conflict, Chad is preparing to evacuate 438 people to Port Sudan, before their repatriation by plane. These include pilgrims, diplomats, students and families.
Separately, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it has recorded the arrival of nearly 4,000 South Sudanese from Sudan, mainly via the Renk town border crossing point in Upper State. -Nile.
Countries show solidarity in evacuation operations. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday morning the arrival of a boat carrying 1,687 civilians fleeing fighting in Sudan. The set of evacuees was transported by one of the kingdom’s ships.
Some 245 recently evacuated French and foreign nationals, including Africans, landed on Wednesday morning at Roissy – Charles-de-Gaulle airport in a plane chartered by the French authorities.
The fighting between the army of General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane, de facto ruler of Sudan since the putsch of 2021, and his rival, General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces , has already killed more than 420 people and injured 3,700 according to the World Health Organization (WHO).