More Pakistanis evacuated to safety

FM says another convoy of 211 Pakistanis arrive in Port Sudan

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistani diplomatic mission in Sudan evacuated 700 countrymen to safety, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Tuesday, while it was keeping a close monitoring of around 1,500 Pakistanis currently in the African country.

Foreign nationals were streaming out of Sudan after the break out of a bloody clash between the warring sides in capital Khartoum. The aid agencies said at least 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded.

Foreign Minister Bilawal, while reiterating the government’s commitment to the protection of the overseas Pakistanis, said that the foreign ministry continued to lead in the relief and rescue of Pakistanis in Sudan.

"Today, another convoy, carrying 211 Pakistanis dispatched from Khartoum has arrived in Port Sudan," Bilawal said in a statement. "With the latest convoy, the total number of Pakistanis who have been evacuated to safety has reached 700," he added.

These Pakistanis were being housed near the port before their onward journey, Bilwal had tweeted earlier this week. The foreign ministry said that around 1,500 Pakistanis were in Sudan, whose safety and security was being closely monitored.

“Ambassador Meer Bahrose Regi’s team in Khartoum and Port Sudan is working day and night to facilitate the stay of Pakistanis, who are still in Sudan until their evacuation to Pakistan,” the ministry statement added.

Read 700 Pakistanis evacuated from Sudan fighting

The statement further said that the ministry remained engaged with the friendly countries in the region, especially with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to facilitate the evacuation process. Bilawal appreciated the hard work of the ministry, it added.

Sudan has long history of civil wars. However, the latest escalation in the fighting came on April 15, which has turned residential areas into battlefields with air strikes and artillery shells killing at least 459 people and wounding over 4,000.

The fighting also destroyed hospitals and limited food distribution in a nation already reliant on aid for a third of its 46 million people. The UN refugee agency said it was bracing for up to 270,000 people to flee Sudan into neighbouring Chad and South Sudan.

In Khartoum, bus stations were packed with people who had spent the night there in hopes of getting on a departing bus. Drivers increased prices, sometimes tenfold, for routes to the border crossing with Egypt or the eastern Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

The UN health agency, Word Health Organization (WHO) said there had been 14 attacks on healthcare facilities or personnel during the fighting, leaving eight healthcare workers dead and two injured.

The WHO said on Tuesday one of the warring parties had taken control of a national health facility that stores measles and cholera pathogens for vaccinations. It did not say which of the two sides – the army or the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“The lab is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” said Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO’s representative in Sudan. “In addition to chemical hazards, bio-risk hazards are also very high due to lack of functioning generators.”

(WITH INPUT FROM AGENCIES)