Sudan Conflict: Manila Organizing Evacuation Plans For Filipinos

The government is preparing to evacuate some 300 Filipinos in Sudan amid the ongoing clashes between rival military forces in the Northeast African nation.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said the Philippines is "already preparing the assets that might be involved" in order to bring Filipinos out of the strife-torn country. Since airports are currently unusable, Marcos said the government is studying the best option to repatriate Filipinos from Sudan.

"Also, we cannot ascertain a secure land route for them to leave. It is a long road from Khartoum to Cairo, which is where our embassy is, that is in charge also of Khartoum and Sudan," he said in according to an Inquirer report.

Marcos said there are about 300 Filipinos in Sudan that will be evacuated.

Death toll from the violent clashes in Sudan has reached 420 as fighting escalated 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, CBS news said, citing World Health Organization data.

Prior to the conflict, the two military forces were allies and banded together in a coup in 2019 to overthrow former general Omar Al-Bashir after taking charge of Sudan for 30 years Following the coup, a power-sharing council was formed with Al-Burhan as chief of the council. In 2021, Al-Burhan said he would dissolve the council and hold elections in 2023. The two parties failed to come up with an agreement regarding how the RSF would be integrated into the army ahead of the restoration of civilian rule.

Violence broke out on April 8 with Sudan's capital city of Khartoum and its adjacent city Omdurman as centers of the heavy fighting between the two military forces.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) earlier noted that 86 out of the 400 Filipinos based in Sudan had sought government's assistance for evacuation. Some of these 86 Filipinos may have been among the 66 foreign nationals who arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, following an evacuation mission by the Royal Saudi Naval Forces when airports were still operational, the Inquirer report noted.

Meanwhile, at least one Filipino was hurt in the clashes, the Philippine Star said citing a report from the DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs.