Pakistan completes evacuations from battle-hit Sudan

Saudi naval and special forces hoist evacuees aboard a vessel during a rescue operation from Port Sudan to Jeddah, on April 30, 2023AFP

The evacuation of Pakistanis out of crisis-hit Sudan ended on Tuesday with more than 1,000 nationals taken to safety since fighting erupted, the foreign ministry said.

Clashes in Sudan have killed more than 500 people, displaced tens of thousands and triggered an international exodus.

“We have successfully and safely evacuated over 1,000 Pakistanis out of Sudan,” the ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

“With this our evacuation operations out of Sudan have ended,” it said, adding that it included all Pakistanis who had wanted to leave.

The final group of Pakistani nationals was repatriated to Jeddah on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The evacuees were taken from Port Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia by boat, with the support of Saudi Arabia and China.

Most have already made the onward journey to Pakistan.

Many Pakistanis in Sudan work in various technical and labour-oriented roles such as engineers, steel fixers, technicians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, and labourers.

Additionally, a number of Pakistanis are also engaged in small-scale businesses in the country.

Violence has gripped Sudan since 15 April when tensions erupted into armed exchanges between regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

In a Monday briefing, the top UN aid official in Sudan, Abdou Dieng, warned that the situation was turning into “a full-blown catastrophe”.