300 Sudanese evacuees from Yemen arrive in Khartoum

April 11, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Three hundred Sudanese evacuees from Yemen arrived in Khartoum early Friday morning (local time), bringing the total number of returnees to 449, out of the 1935 who expressed a desire to return home.

The state minister at the ministry of cabinet affairs and head of the evacuation committee, Jamal Mahmoud, had earlier said they listed more than 4,000 Sudanese nationals in Yemen.

Three cohorts of evacuees had arrived at Khartoum airport in the early hours of Friday morning at various times. The first batch including 38 returnees arrived at 12.30 am. aboard a regular flight on Sudan Airways via Jeddah airport in Saudi Arabia.

The second group of evacuees arrived at 02:00 am. (local time) via evacuation flight aboard Badr Airlines, while the third batch composed of 129 returnees arrived aboard the same airlines via Jeddah airport making the total number of returnees on Friday 297 people.

The returnees were received at Khartoum airport by several officials from the Secretariat of Sudanese Working Abroad (SSWA) besides representatives from other bodies including the Sudanese army, National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Khartoum airport company.

Evacuees have expressed delight to return to the country, calling upon the government to evacuate the rest of the Sudanese nationals stranded in Yemen.

They denied that Sudanese nationals have been systematically targeted except for some limited individual cases of verbal attacks.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government disclosed on Thursday provision of an air cover for the buses working on evacuation of Sudanese from Yemen to Saudi Arabia, saying that 15 buses managed to arrive on the Saudi-Yemen border under security, military, and air protection.

Sudan agreed to receive 600 foreign evacuees after it has been chosen by the coalition and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to be the principal station for evacuating nationals from various nations as a prelude to transfer them to their countries.

Sudanese government is a member of the Saudi-led military coalition codenamed “Operation Firmness Storm” against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

(ST)