ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has evacuated all of its stranded nationals from crisis-hit Sudan, which has been overwhelmed by brutal clashes between the armed forces and rival paramilitary group.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said over 1,000 Pakistanis have been safely evacuated from the conflict-hit country, and the evacuation operations out of the war-hit country have ended.
As operations in North African state ended, evacuations through Saudi Arabia would continue until all Pakistanis are brought back safely, Foreign Office said. Pakistanis in crisis-hit nations are first evacuated to Port Sudan and then transferred to Saudi where Pakistan Air Force is bringing them back home.
Pakistan also thanked Beijing and Riyadh for their assistance in the evacuation process. A tweet shared by Foreign Office said “By Allah’s grace and tireless efforts of our embassy in Khartoum led by Amb Regi, supported by Saudi Arab and China and our teams in Jeddah and Islamabad, we have successfully [and] safely evacuated over 1,000 Pakistanis out of Sudan. With this, our evacuation operations out of Sudan have ended”.
On Monday, MoFA updated that over 1,000 Pakistanis would be evacuated from the conflict-hit country within a day as the repatriation process started in the war zone ever since the rival forces came face to face.
Pakistan begins evacuation of stranded citizens from conflict-hit Sudan to Saudi Arabia
As several countries are evacuating citizens, Sudan’s rival forces accused each other of fresh violations of a ceasefire. The recent violence stemmed from fight for power between armed forces commander General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and Rapid Support Forces chief General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. Burhan and Dagalo are ex-allies who take over the country’s reign in the 2021 coup that derailed the North African country’s journey toward democracy.