By Rey E. Requejo, Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta
A Filipino was wounded by a stray bullet in Sudan, while a Philippine ambassador figured in a car accident on his way to oversee evacuation efforts in the war-torn African country, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.
The unidentified Filipino was “wounded in the hand by a stray bullet but he has received treatment,” DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza said, adding that no Filipinos were reported killed.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to Egypt Ezzedin Tago was on his way to the border between Egypt and Sudan when his vehicle was involved in an accident, Daza said.
He was unharmed and returned to Cairo to facilitate the entry of Filipino evacuees to Egypt, Daza said.
As of Wednesday morning, the DFA has deployed seven buses carrying around 300 repatriates from Sudan to Egypt, said Undersecretary Ed de Vega, who said processing at the Egyptian border was taking over a day.
“Our Embassy is sending teams to try to fix it,” he said.
The DFA said there were 740 registered Filipinos in Sudan.
The evacuation buses took Filipinos to Cairo, over 2,000 kilometers north of Khartoum.
Daza said getting buses to transport Filipinos out of Sudan was also challenging, given their scarcity and high rental rates.
So far, 80 Filipinos have left Sudan, while 270 others are requesting repatriation, data from the DFA showed.
Most are professionals, while some work on farms or are students, Daza said.
“Philippine Honorary Consul Tariq has distributed welfare assistance to priority groups including senior citizens and families with small children in Khartoum,” she said.
Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople, who is also expected to be in Egypt, earlier said that the Philippine government would provide $200 for each Filipino evacuee from Sudan.
The fighting in Sudan, which has left some neighborhoods of its capital in ruins, broke out on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
At least 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 have been wounded across Africa’s third-biggest country, according to UN agencies.
A US-brokered ceasefire between the two generals entered its second day on Wednesday but remained fragile after witnesses reported fresh air strikes and paramilitaries claimed to have seized a major oil refinery and power plant.
Security fears were compounded when the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday of a “huge biological risk” after fighters occupied a Khartoum laboratory holding samples of cholera, measles, polio, and other infectious diseases.
Sudan, one of the world’s poorest nations, has a history of military coups.
The two warring generals seized power in the 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
Some Filipinos in Sudan are taking their fate into their own hands by fleeing the African nation by themselves.
Anthony Buhay and John Emil Deza, both Filipino workers in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, no longer waited for assistance from the Philippine Embassy in Egypt, which has jurisdiction over Sudan, after renting buses just to take them out of the center of the clashes.
Buhay said he joined a group of evacuees, including Filipinos, who rented a bus for Egypt; while Deza traveled by a private car with his family bound for Soba, also in Sudan, to seek temporary refuge.
They made the move as the Philippine government struggled to evacuate them and the bullets started raining on the streets.
“There were already bombardments in front of our house… It’s really hard. All the stress. No food, no water. Everything’s gone,” Deza said in a TV interview.
A number of stranded Filipinos were among those evacuated by the French government in Sudan.
“France continues its evacuation operations launched in Khartoum for French nationals and citizens of other countries, including the Philippines, wanting to leave Sudan,” the French Embassy in the Philippines said, without specifying the number of Filipinos evacuated from war-torn Sudan.
The French navy frigate Lorraine also assisted the United Nations in the evacuation underway in Port Sudan.
Since the start of the operation, a total of 538 people have been evacuated, including 209 French nationals and foreign nationals from 41 other countries.
Senator Imee Marcos said the Department of Migrant Workers should evacuate the more than 400 Filipino workers in Sudan.
“We have to ask the DMW when will be the earliest possible opportunity for them to bring back home the Filipinos who are in danger in Sudan. It seems the situation (in Sudan) is becoming worse. we really do not know until when will they respect the ceasefire,” Marcos said.
In the House, Kabayan Rep. Ron Salo appealed to the DFA and the DMW to provide assistance to Filipino workers trapped in Sudan.
“Time is of the essence. We need to evacuate our fellow Filipinos before the country completely submerges into conflict. I trust that the DFA and the DMW are on top of the situation,” Salo said.
