Kenya said Monday it had started the evacuation of its citizens from Sudan amid ongoing clashes.
Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affair Alfred Mutua Monday revealed that already 29 Kenyan students have crossed the Ethiopian border from Sudan.
He said they were on their way to Gondor where they will fly to Addis Ababa and then to Nairobi.
Mutua said the ministry has three active evacuation programs that are estimated to ferry at least 400 Kenyans.
Apart from the first program that evacuated the 29 students, the ministry has a Kenyan Airforce aircraft ready for a group of 18 students who are currently traveling by road to the South Sudan border.
According to Mutua, they will be airlifted to Nairobi.
“Three, a larger group of Kenyans are on a well-planned program of travel and we will have two aircraft ferry them from Port Sudan to Jeddah and thereafter to Nairobi by Kenya Airways,” the CS said.
He added they expect to ferry 300 to 400 Kenyans in this way.
He thanked South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia for granting permission for Kenyas in Sudan to overfly their airspace.
“I also, in particular, thank the governments of South Sudan and Ethiopia for heeding our request and allowing Kenyans to cross their borders and make it to safety.”
He urged Kenyan Foreign and Diaspora staff in various nations together with multi-agency teams to seamlessly coordinate through the process.
Yesterday Kenya set up a special inter-agency facilitation and emergency committee to manage the evacuation of international staff in Sudan.
The clashes in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo continued in the second week.
Khartoum International Airport has remained closed for several days, as is Sudan’s border with neighboring Chad, according to the State Department.
