All Pakistanis evacuated from battle-hit Sudan

FO says repatriation operation concludes with last group of over 1,000 arriving in Jeddah

ISLAMABAD:

The Foreign Office announced on Tuesday the conclusion of its operation for the evacuation of Pakistanis citizens out of crisis-hit Sudan with the more than 1,000 nationals taken to safety since fighting erupted.

The final group of Pakistanis was repatriated to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday morning, officials said. The evacuees were taken from Port Sudan to Jeddah by boat, with the support of Saudi Arabia and China. Most of them have begun homeward journey.

“We have successfully and safely evacuated over 1,000 Pakistanis out of Sudan,” the Foreign Office said in a tweet. “With this our evacuation operations out of Sudan have ended,” it said, adding that it included all Pakistanis, who had wanted to leave.

In a separate tweet, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan specified that the number of Pakistanis taken out of Sudan was 1,025. He also said repatriations from Jeddah would continue until the “last Pakistani is eventually brought back”.

Also read: All Pakistanis to be ‘evacuated from Sudan in two days’

Many Pakistanis in Sudan worked in various technical and labour-oriented roles such as engineers, steel fixers, technicians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, and labourers. Besides, a number of Pakistanis are also engaged in small-scale businesses in the country.

Violence has gripped Sudan since April 15 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.

The top UN aid official in Sudan, Abdou Dieng, told a briefing on Monday that the situation was turning into "a full-blown catastrophe". Clashes in Sudan have killed more than 500 people, displaced tens of thousands and triggered an international exodus.

(WITH INPUT FROM AFP)