218 Iraqis evacuated from Sudan

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Two Iraqi evacuation planes took off on Thursday from the Sudanese city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea, carrying 218 Iraqi citizens and 16 Syrians residing in Sudan.

The spokesperson of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, said in a statement that the two planes designated to evacuate Iraqis from Port Sudan are now heading to Baghdad with 234 people on board.

The statement illustrated that the Iraqi authorities are preparing for the evacuees’ arrival in Baghdad to provide medical aid and to complete their arrival procedures.

Mohammed Jassim, an Iraqi student studying in Sudan, spoke to Sky News Arabia about the difficult circumstances Sudan is going through and the difficult journey to return to Iraq.

“Following difficult days of siege, fear, and depletion of food, and thanks to the fragile truce, my two brothers, who are students in Khartoum, left on Wednesday, and had to travel about 813 kilometers (505 miles) by road to Port Sudan,” Jassim to Sky News Arabia.

“The journey takes more than 8 hours by road through a secondary road that is safer in light of the ongoing armed conflict, as main roads linking Khartoum and Port Sudan are cut off,” Jassim explained.

“My two brothers were unable to register for evacuation through the two planes sent by the Iraqi government and took off Thursday afternoon from Port Sudan, but if no other planes are sent, they will board one of the evacuation ships that sail daily from Port Sudan towards the Saudi city of Jeddah,” Jassim clarified.

“We hope these clashes completely stop, residents in Sudan return to their normal lives, and security return to the country in which we studied and lived for years,” Jassim added.

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, directed on Tuesday to send two planes to transport Iraqis stranded in Sudan because of the ongoing events.

According to Al-Sahaf, the number of Iraqis in Sudan is 300, which means that most of them have been evacuated.