Indonesia Evacuates More Than 800 Citizens from Sudan Conflict

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Indonesia is evacuating more than 800 of its citizens from Sudan. Alongside other countries, Indonesia has used the opportunity of the calmer situation in Sudan after days of fiery conflict between the armed forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which left hundreds of people died. 

However, some Indonesian citizens refused to follow the evacuation.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said there are two phases of the evacuation. As many as 569 people joined the first evacuation phase. Among them, 557 evacuees already arrived in Jeddah on Wednesday morning (26/4/2023). 

The other 12 citizens include 10 people from the Indonesian embassy in Khartoum. Two others are still completing their travel documents.

Minister Retno said the evacuation process is "complicated". For the second phase, there are 328 people who will be evacuated, including five children. They are already waiting at the Port Sudan City, most of them are students.

"Team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is led by the Director of Indonesian Citizen Protection is currently crossing from Jeddah to Port Sudan City to help the evacuation phase 2 and finish all the matters related to this evacuation which are very complicated," said Minister Retno on Wednesday evening.

Moreover, Minister Retno Marsudi said that six Australians and one Sudanese are also included in this second evacuation. 

The ministry also found that there are 937 Indonesian citizens in Sudan, previous data indicated there were 1.209 people. 

Minister Retno further said that 25 Indonesian citizens did not want to follow evacuation because of "family matters". There are also 15 Indonesian citizens who evacuated independently. 

Furthermore, Minister Retno confirmed that a bus which brought the evacuees was involved in an accident due to the bad road condition near Atbara city. She said the driver was also exhausted. Three people are hospitalized in Port Sudan City. 

For the evacuees who are already in Jeddah, Indonesian government will let them rest before taking them home. 

"The Indonesian citizens will be resting and will be sent home gradually to Indonesia," said Minister Retno.

She also gave her thanks to the people in Sudan and Saudi Arabia who open the path for evacuations. 

Previously, Arab News reported that Saudi Arabia has received 1,687 evacuees from 58 nationalities on Wednesday, including 560 people from Indonesia.

Before the evacuation was possible, Minister Retno had admitted it was difficult to evacuate the citizens due to the armed conflicts. The diplomats from Indonesian Embassy in Khartoum then sent foods to the Indonesian citizens in the country and took some people to the safe house.