ISLAMABAD: The first batch of Pakistanis evacuated from embattled Sudan retur­ned to the homeland on Friday.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, while giving an update on the evacuation of Pakistani nationals in Sudan, said an aircraft carrying 149 Pakis­tani nationals evacuated from Sudan arrived in Karachi on Friday morning.

“Two other flights carrying around 200 Pakistanis are expected to arrive later today. One of them originated from Port Sudan and the other from Jeddah to bring back Pakis­tanis who had earlier been evacuated there,” she said.

Ms Baloch said the evacuation of Pakistanis from a difficult security situation in Sudan had been made possible by a robust inter-agency process led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Heavy battles rage despite latest truce; Turkiye’s military aircraft comes under fire

She said the evacuation plan has been implemented in phases: In the first phase of the operation, over 800 Pakistanis were transported from Khart­oum to Port Sudan, which was relatively safe. The second phase of the evacuation operation consisted of transporting Pakistani nationals from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, or directly to Pakistan.

“Today’s flights, operating from Port Sudan via Jeddah, mark the first part of this second phase,” she said.

The spokesperson said that evacuation from Port Sudan to Jeddah continues including through ferries operated by the Saudi government. Some passengers will also be evacuated through a Chinese ship from Port Sudan to Jeddah.

“We remain engaged with friendly countries in the region and are especially grateful to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for facilitating this process by providing transport by ferry from Port Sudan to Jeddah and also hosting Pakistani nationals until their repatriation to Pakistan,” she said.

Ms Baloch said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to lead the inter-agency process. Ambassador Meer Bahrose Regi’s team in Khartoum and Port Sudan have worked tirelessly to facilitate this process and will continue to provide relief to Pakistanis who remain in Sudan until their evacuation to Pakistan. Our Consulate General of Jeddah will continue to coordinate with the Saudi authorities and assist Pakistanis in transit through Jeddah.

The spokesperson, who had earlier put the number of Pakistanis stranded in Sudan at around 1,500, avoided giving the exact number of Pakistani nationals trapped in Sudan.

“We have a large number of Pakistanis who are still in Sudan and some Pakistanis are in transit through Jeddah. They were evacuated earlier from Port Sudan to Jeddah. Since the outbreak of civil war in Sudan, we have evacuated about 847 Pakistanis from Khartoum to Port Sudan and of them some are already in Jeddah while the rest are in transit as we speak to Jeddah via ferries. So, the situation is fluid. We would be able to give you the exact numbers as we have more details about the movement of these ferries,” she said while answering a question.

Heavy battles

Fighting raged in Sudan on Friday, despite rival forces agreeing to extend a truce aimed to stem nearly two weeks of warfare that has killed hundreds and caused widespread destruction, AFP adds.

In the war-ravaged western Darfur region, scores have been killed in days of bitter urban battles in the city of El Geneina, the United Nations says.

Black clouds rose over the capital Khartoum as foreign governments scrambled to organise mass evacuations of their citizens, with Turkiye’s defence ministry reporting on Friday that one of their military transport aircraft had come under fire.

There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy and fellow coup leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.

On Thursday, the two sides agreed to extend a repeatedly broken ceasefire for three more days, with the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union, the UN and others hoping it would help forge a “more durable cessation of hostilities”.

Since a power struggle between Burhan and Daglo erupted into violence, fighter jets have pounded RSF positions in densely packed districts of Khartoum, as fighters on the ground exchanged volleys of artillery and heavy machine gun fire.

In some parts of the city of some five million people trenches have been dug, as gunmen battle each other street by street.

At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.

Fighting has also spread across Sudan, especially in long-troubled Darfur, where witnesses reported intense conflict and looting.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2023