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949 Indonesians evacuated out of Sudan: Foreign Minister
A total of 829 Indonesians have returned home from conflict-hit Sudan to Indonesia via Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
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This handout picture taken and released on April 28, 2023 by the Foreign Ministry shows the first group of Indonesians evacuated from strife-torn Sudan arriving at Soekarno-Hatta International airport in Jakarta after a chartered flight from Saudi Arabia.
(AFP/Foreign Ministry)
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total of 949 Indonesians had been evacuated out of Sudan as of Monday, as foreign governments scramble to evacuate their citizens out of the North African country amid the ongoing civil war.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said that 930 Indonesians were evacuated via Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 13 via Egypt and six via the United Arab Emirates.
Of the 949 Indonesian evacuees, 823 returned home to Indonesia from Jeddah in three batches of repatriation flights in the past few days. Meanwhile, six of the remaining groups arranged their own journeys home.
About 100 evacuees are scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday aboard a Garuda Indonesia charter flight.
Retno said that the evacuation of Indonesians had been conducted well, despite many other countries still struggling to evacuate their citizens out of Sudan.
“I have expressed my appreciation and gratitude to the governments of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates for helping to evacuate several Indonesian citizens out of Sudan,” Retno said in a recorded press briefing on Monday.
Since violence broke out between Sudan’s military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), many foreign governments have extracted their citizens by airlifts or land travel from the capital Khartoum, the epicenter of the conflict, to a safe zone in Port Sudan on the Red Sea to board ships to flee Sudan.
Saudi Arabia, across the Red Sea from Sudan, has been a major hub for the evacuation efforts. It has evacuated at least 5,197 people of 100 nationalities, including 184 Saudi citizens, its foreign ministry said on Sunday, Reuters reported.
The United States evacuated US and some foreign diplomats on April 22, and by Sunday around 1,000 Americans had left Sudan.
The United Nations estimated on Monday the conflict in Sudan could force 800,000 to flee the country as battles between military factions persisted despite a supposed ceasefire, Reuters reported.
At least 528 people have been killed and 4,599 were wounded according to the Sudanese Health Ministry, over two weeks of battles after disputes between the Sudanese army and the RSF erupted into conflict on April 15.
Both sides agreed on Sunday to extend ceasefires by 72 hours, but air strikes and artillery continued to ring out on Monday in Khartoum and neighboring cities.
There are about 1,200 Indonesians registered with their embassy in Khartoum, but only 937 were present during the conflict.
Most Indonesians in Sudan were students studying Islam. Other than Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Sudan has been one of the most popular spots to study Islam as many religious schools in the country are well known for their recitations of the Quran.
Sudan’s Islam is also affiliated with the Sufi tradition, which is also popular among some Muslim communities in Indonesia.
