The Department of Foreign Affairs said Friday more than half of the 700 registered Filipinos in war-torn Sudan have been evacuated by the Philippine government during the 72-hour ceasefire there and are now in Egypt.
In a statement, the DFA said as of Friday noon (Manila time), 496Filipinos were able to get out of the capital city, Khartoum, where the heavy fighting between the Sudanese military and paramilitary forces took place.
A total 414 Filipino evacuees traveled the Sudanese border to Egypt through the evacuation buses rented by the Philippine embassy.
“Philippine Ambassador to Egypt Ezzedin Tago welcomed 340 Filipinos from Khartoum at the Argeen border this morning after they were cleared by Egyptian authorities for entry,” the DFA said.
“There have been delays in the processing at the Egyptian border due to the influx of evacuees,” it added.
The evacuees’ travel time from Khartoum to Argeen, Egypt—their initial stop—was about 24 to 36 hours, including processing time at the border.
They would then travel for five more hours to the Egyptian city of Aswan before boarding a plane bound for the capital city, Cairo.
Filipino evacuees would either seek temporary shelter in Cairo, where the embassy is located, or fly back to the Philippines.
The Philippine government struggled to evacuate Filipinos in Khartoum due to scarcity in evacuation buses and whooping rental prices that have reached P1.5 million each.
Meanwhile, 58 Filipinos recently left Khartoum and proceeded to Port Sudan, where they would ride a ship bound for Saudi.
The remaining 24 Filipino evacuees who managed to leave Sudan were now either in Athens, Greece after flying through a Greek military aircraft or in Jeddah, Saudi after riding a Saudi military ship.
“DFA teams in Athens, Jeddah, and at the Egypt-Sudan border have been assisting Filipinos from Khartoum and are making arrangements for their repatriation via the next available flights,” DFA said.
“Coordination with the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Greece on the safe passage of Filipino evacuees is continuing through the respective Philippine Embassies,” it added.
Fighting erupted in Khartoum on April 15 due to power struggle between Sudan’s military ruler, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and paramilitary leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
A total 340 Filipinos have arrived in Egypt after being evacuated by the Philippine government from strife-torn Sudan.
According to DFA, 227 overseas Filipinos set foot on Egyptian soil early Friday (Manila time) after crossing the border in Argeen.
In related developments:
* The DFA said some Filipinos who fled from the deadly fighting in Sudan experienced delays in their entry to neighboring Egypt due to their missing travel documents.
Some 400 Filipinos evacuated from Sudan’s capital Khartoum, but “not all have entered Egypt,” DFA Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said.
He said: “Around 350 Filipinos aboard seven buses have reached the border of Egypt yesterday. The problem is the processing of their papers. Egypt has no entry visa, so their papers are processed there.
“Egypt says it might take two or three days because they are also bombarded with the entry of so many evacuees.”
A proof of identity is needed to enter Egypt, where the Philippines has an embassy, he said.
But some Filipinos fled from Khartoum with expired passports or fake documents. A DFA team is helping them secure the necessary documents, the official said.