278 Indians, 1,200 EU nationals, 50 Filipinos among more foreign nationals evacuated from Sudan

Gulf Today Report

A total of 278 people departed from Port Sudan onboard INS Sumedha for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, said a spokesperson of India's Ministry of External Affairs. The development comes in the wake of the launch of Operation Kaveri by the Modi government to evacuate 3,000 Indians stranded in Sudan, according to a report in a section of the Indian media.

About 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan under Operation Kaveri that has begun to evacuate nationals from the crisis-torn Sudan, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said earlier.

"Our ships and aircraft are set to bring them back home. Committed to assist all our bretheren in Sudan," he said.

Foreign nationals being evacuated from Port Sudan on Tuesday. Reuters

India has positioned two heavy-lift military transport aircraft in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah and a naval ship at a key port in violence-hit Sudan as part of its contingency plans to evacuate its stranded nationals.

EU evacuates 1,200 citizens

The European Union (EU) has completed the evacuation of 1,200 European citizens on 31 flights from Sudan, the bloc's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

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An estimated 400 citizens remain in the country, he was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

Borrell said that the EU's delegation, including the ambassador, had been evacuated from Sudan's capital Khartoum, which is "too dangerous". However, the delegation's "number two", the head of security, has remained in Sudan, although not in Khartoum.

Greek nationals from Sudan arrive on a military C-27 plane at the military airport of Elefsina, south of Athens. AFP

"We have been evacuating EU citizens and some citizens from other countries. I cannot give you a precise number. I can give you the number of my staff, around 21, but my best estimation is more than 1,200 evacuated by the end of the day, on 31 flights," Borrell told a press conference after the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg.

Borrell also called for the conflict to end.

50 Filipinos leave Sudan

A bus carrying around 50 Filipinos has left the violence-hit Sudanese capital of Khartoum for the northern border with Egypt, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila said on Tuesday.

"As of 8pm on Monday, the first batch (of around 50 Filipinos) left Khartoum by land," spokeswoman Teresita Daza said.

From the border, Daza said the Filipinos will be taken to Aswan City and then to the Egyptian capital Cairo, reports Xinhua news agency.

Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega told a radio interview on Tuesday that the Philippine Embassy in Cairo will provide accommodation and plane tickets to the Filipinos.

De Vega said there are about 700 Filipinos in Sudan as of the last count. However, he said only around 300 Filipinos have signified their intention to leave Sudan.

He confirmed that the bus has left Khartoum and was on the way to the border.

28 South Korean nationals on way back home

A South Korean military plane carrying 28 nationals from war-ravaged Sudan is on its way back home, the Defence Ministry in Seoul said on Tuesday.

Seoul's presidential office initially said 26 evacuees would fly to Korea aboard the KC-330 tanker transport plane, while two opted to stay in Saudi Arabia, reports Yonhap News Agency.

But the two changed their mind and boarded the plane, the Ministry said.

The plane is expected to arrive at Seoul Air Base, just south of Seoul, at around 4pm on Tuesday.

Under the mission, codenamed Operation Promise, the evacuees boarded the KC-330 in Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia, after they flew there from Port Sudan aboard a C-130J transport plane.

They travelled to Port Sudan from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum by land.

Seoul officials had anxiously watched the evacuation process.

Japanese evacuated

The Japanese government said on Tuesday that all of its nationals who wished to leave violence-hit Sudan have been evacuated.

According to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, along with Japanese nationals who departed on a Self-Defence Forces (SDF) plane, eight Japanese nationals and their families also left Sudan.

Efforts had been underway to evacuate around 60 Japanese nationals from Sudan.

Sudan has descended into a bloody battle zone following the eruption of violence between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15.

The two sides have agreed to a three-day ceasefire which started at midnight on Monday.

The brutal fighting has killed at least 427 people and injured more than 3,700, according to UN agencies.