More than 150 people, including foreign diplomats and officials, rescued from battle-scarred Sudan arrived Saturday in Jeddah, the Saudi foreign ministry said, in the first announced evacuation of civilians since fighting began.
At home, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said the government was working out plans to safely bring out trapped Filipinos from strife-torn Sudan.
In a statement, Mr. Marcos said the Philippine government was getting more information on the ground to better prepare and ascertain if an evacuation is possible.
“We have about 300 people in Sudan. Unfortunately, none of the airports are functioning. They are still under fire,” President Marcos said.
“We are just waiting to get better information as to whether or not it will be safe to bring our evacuees out of Khartoum, perhaps into Cairo,” the Chief Executive pointed out.
He explained there was no identified secure land route yet as the Sudanese capital of Khartoum is hundreds of miles away from Egypt, where the nearest Philippine Embassy is located.
As of Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said at least 86 have requested to be evacuated or repatriated from the country.
According to the World Health Organization, over 400 people have died in the continued conflict in Sudan since the in-fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group began on April 15.
A 72-hour truce has fallen through, according to Anadolu reports, quoting a local doctors association’s announcement on Saturday (see related story in World page – Editors).
Hospitals continue to be targeted in the conflict as both sides failed to fulfill their commitments under the ceasefire, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said.
An Anadolu correspondent on the ground said the fighting had spread to Bahri and Omdurman, cities adjacent to Khartoum, the CCSD added, noting that clashes had also taken place around the army headquarters and presidential palace.
Both sides accused each other of violating the truce, with the army claiming that the RSF was pushing more forces to Khartoum, while the paramilitary group said the SAF attacked its forces at different locations.
The evacuation was carried out by the kingdom’s naval forces with the support of other branches of the army, the foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday.
It announced the “safe arrival” of 91 Saudi citizens and around 66 nationals from 12 other countries—Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Canada, and Burkina Faso.
The foreigners included “diplomats and international officials,” the ministry said without giving further details.
The SAF said in a statement on Facebook that army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan had received requests from different countries to allow the evacuation of their nationals.
“We are waiting for the process to begin in the coming hours as US, UK, France, and China will provide military planes for the evacuation from Khartoum,” the statement said.
It added that the Saudi diplomatic mission was the first nation to have its citizens evacuated through Port Sudan, adding that Jordan would use the same route.
Kuwait also said Saturday that it had launched an “emergency operation” to evacuate its citizens.
Foreign Minister Sheikh Salim Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah said all Kuwaitis who wanted to return to the Gulf country have safely reachedthe city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and that efforts continued to get them to Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia “worked to provide all the necessary needs of foreignnationals” ahead of their departure to their respective countries, the statement added.
Saudi state-run Al-Ekhbariya television released several videos of warships approaching Jeddah’s port on Saturday.
The evacuees were received by officials and soldiers who distributed sweets on the occasion of the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, footage showed.
Women and children holding Saudi flags were also seen getting off one of the ships.
Among those who arrived in Jeddah on Saturday was the crew of a Saudi passenger plane that was hit by gunfire while preparing to take off from Khartoum at the start of the fighting on April 15, according to Al-Ekhbariya.
The broadcaster said that the evacuees were transported in a convoy of vehicles to Port Sudan from where they boarded ships to Jeddah.
It was the first evacuation of civilians from Sudan since violence erupted there a week ago.
Earlier on Saturday, Sudan’s army said its chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had received calls from leaders of several countries to “facilitate and guarantee safety for evacuating citizens and diplomatic missions.”
It noted that the evacuations are expected to begin “in the cominghours,” adding the United States, Britain, France and China are planning to airlift their nationals out of Khartoum using military jets.
Clashes erupted on April 15 between forces loyal to Burhan and thoseof his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The former allies seized power in a 2021 coup but later fell out in a bitter power struggle.
The conflict—much of which has taken place in Khartoum—has left hundreds dead and thousands wounded.
Heavy gunfire, loud explosions, and fighter jets roared in many parts of the capital Saturday morning, according to witnesses. AFP with Vince Lopez