Philippines to evacuate 1st batch of Filipinos in Sudan ‘within 24 hours’

MANILA: The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday said that it is preparing to evacuate up to 50 Filipinos from Sudan as the violent unrest in the north African country continues unabated.

Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said the first batch will likely leave Sudan's capital Khartoum "within 24 hours", reports Xinhua news agency.

A bus will take the Filipinos from Khartoum to northern Sudan at the border with Egypt, a distance of about 1,000 km, de Vega said, adding that the Filipinos will take a bus ride from the border to Aswan City in southern Egypt, where there is an international airport.

"The security is not 100 per cent guaranteed for the 1,000-km travel from Khartoum to the north," de Vega said.

He said many Filipinos in Sudan are undocumented.

About 500 Filipinos in Sudan have emailed the Philippine Embassy in Egypt to register.

Violent clashes that erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15, continues as of Monday.

According to Sudan's Health Ministry, the violence has left at least 424 people dead and about 3,730 wounded.

In the wake of the conflict, several countries have evacuated diplomats and citizens from Khartoum.

The US and UK announced on Sunday they had flown diplomats out of the country, while France, Germany, Italy and Spain have said that they are also organising evacuations, according to a BBC report.

Two Indian Air Force C-130J aircraft are currently positioned on standby in Jeddah, while INS Sumedha has also reached Port Sudan to evacuate Indians from war-torn Sudan.

Egypt has evacuated 436 Egyptian citizens from Sudan.

Iraq has announced that it succeeded in evacuating 14 Iraqi citizens from Khartoum to a safe place in the Port Sudan area.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry announced that more than 150 people, including foreign diplomats and officials, have been rescued from Sudan and have arrived in Jeddah.

As many as 91 Saudi citizens and around 66 nationals from 12 other countries, including India, were evacuated from Sudan in the operation that was carried out by the Saudi Arabia's naval forces with the support of other branches of the army.

Citizens from Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Tunisia, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philipines, Canada and Burkina Faso have also been evacuated.