• Britain also begins large-scale evacuation
• ‘Huge biological risk’ after fighters occupy lab in Khartoum, warns WHO

ISLAMABAD: More than 200 Pakistanis were evacuated to safety in chaos-torn Sudan on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said, bringing the total number of rescued nationals to 700.

“In keeping with the commitment of the Government of Pakistan to the welfare of overseas Pakistanis, Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to lead in the relief and rescue of Pakistanis in Sudan. Today, another convoy carrying 211 Pakistanis dispatched from Khartoum has arrived in Port Sudan,” the minister said in a statement.

“With the latest convoy, the total number of Pakistanis who have been evacuated to safety has reached 700,” he said.

Pakistanis were being hou­sed near the port before their onward journey, Mr Bhutto-Zardari tweeted earlier this week.

Other nations have also stepped up efforts to evacuate their nationals from Sudan, where fighting between the army and paramilitaries has killed and wounded hundreds.

But security fears were compounded when the World Hea­lth Organization (WHO) war­ned of a “huge biological risk” after fighters occupied a Kha­rtoum laboratory holding samples of cholera, measles, polio and other infectious diseases.

On Tuesday, sporadic gunfire rang out in parts of the Sudanese capital Khartoum despite a US-brokered agreement between the warring sides to a ceasefire for 72 hours to pave the way for talks on a more lasting truce.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said in the statement that the government remained engaged with friendly countries in the region, especially Saudi Ara­bia, to facilitate this process.

His statement came a day after the Foreign Office anno­unced that the first batch of 500 Pakistanis had reached the city of Port Sudan, some 850 kilometres from Khartoum, for their onward to Saudi Arabia by sea.

The evacuated Pakistanis would be brought back home from Jeddah through special flights with the cooperation of Pakistan Air Force and Pakis­tan International Airlines.

The ministry has said that the evacuees are being provided temporary accommodation and food by the government.

A Foreign Office official said that a comprehensive plan to evacuate Pakistanis from Sudan had been finalised after consulting foreign missions in Sudan and its neighbours.

He said an emergency helpline had been set up at Pakistan’s embassy in Khartoum and the diplomatic staff was in constant contact with the stranded Pakistanis.

On Sunday, Mr Bhutto-Zardari talked to the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, by phone and expressed his gratitude for the kingdom’s help in evacuating Pakistani nationals from Sudan.

Foreign evacuations

Apart from Pakistan, multiple nations have scrambled to evacuate embassy staff and citizens by road, air and sea from Sudan.

According to AFP, more than 5,300 people have left Khartoum in the foreign-led evacuations.

Britain, which has thousands of citizens in Sudan, announced “a large-scale evacuation” from Tuesday, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying that “priority will be given to the most vulnerable”.

Germany announced its last evacuation flight will take off Tuesday evening to Jordan.

Little was known about the security situation in remote areas of the poverty-stricken nation, after Darfur in particular has seen heavy fighting in recent days and the looting of aid depots.

Meanwhile, thousands of Sudanese have tried to flee to Egypt, and the United Nations warned it was bracing for an exodus of up to 270,000 refugees to Sudan’s even poorer neighbours Chad and South Sudan.

The UN warned on Tuesday that an estimated 219,000 women in Khartoum are pregnant, with “24,000 expected to give birth in the coming weeks”, amid a near-absence of medical care.

The capital city has endured “more than a week of unspeakable destruction”, Norway’s ambassador Endre Stiansen wrote on Twitter after his evacuation.

In an additional threat, the WHO’s representative in Sudan, Nima Saeed Abid, told reporters in Geneva via video link that there was “a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab... by one of the fighting parties”.

The United States and European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian nations have launched emergency operations to bring to safety embassy staff and Sudan-based citizens.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2023