Pakistanis Stranded in Sudan Will Soon Be Evacuated: FO

Web Desk — Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) is busy day and night bringing back the Pakistanis stranded in the war-torn country Sudan. According to FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, nearly all 1,000 Pakistanis would be evacuated from Sudan within the next 24 to 48 hours.

The FO in a brief statement informed that 93 more Pakistanis stranded in Sudan had reached Islamabad airport on Monday via flight no PK754. So far, a total of 636 Pakistanis had been evacuated safely from Sudan and reached home via PAF special flights from Jeddah.

As many as 729 Pakistanis have been repatriated to the country so far with the latest batch of evacuees.

The FO is shifting the Pakistanis stranded in Sudan since the conflict began in there earlier this month.

The Pakistanis in Sudan are first taken to Port Sudan and then to Jeddah. From Jeddah the PAF is bringing them back home.

The Sudan Conflict

Clashes erupted in Sudan on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). So far, more than 500 people have been killed in the battle.

Daglo’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed fighters. Sudan’s former strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed RSF in the Darfur region, where they were accused of war crimes including genocide. Bashir lost power when the military toppled his government in April 2019 following mass citizen protests.

The two generals, in a 2021 coup, seized power but later both stood against each other in a bitter power struggle, most recently centered on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.

Some Pakistanis Won’t Leave Sudan

According to a report published by Al-Jazeera, there are some Pakistanis who still want to stay in Sudan despite the opportunity to go back to Pakistan. Irfan Khan (35), who runs an optics shop in Khartoum, says he will stay back. “I have my business, friends, and my network. No doubt, things are bad now but they will be better tomorrow.”