More than 400 people have been killed and over 3,550 injured in the ongoing conflict in Sudan. As the violence intensifies, the Kenyan government has activated a plan to evacuate its citizens from the war-torn capital of Khartoum to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. However, due to extensive damage to the Khartoum International Airport caused by the warring parties, evacuation by air has not been possible. Thus, over 100 Kenyan students have embarked on a 1410-kilometre journey by bus to reach the Ethiopian border.
Despite intermittent internet outages, Citizen TV managed to contact some of the students via WhatsApp. According to Mwashame, one of the students, they managed to evacuate from their university and reach the bus station at Minal Al-bari safely. “The first group of students has already boarded a bus towards Gadaref, and the last group is in the bus ready to travel to the same destination. As all this is happening, we are also in communication with the Kenyan embassy here in Sudan. All is well so far,” he said.
Dr Korir Sing’oei, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary, stated that the government’s focus is to get Kenyans out of harm’s way. Due to the damaged airport in Khartoum, the plan is to get Kenyans to Port Sudan from where they will be airlifted to Jeddah and then hopefully to Nairobi.
However, before they can reach the Ethiopian border, the Kenyan students must pass through Gondar City in Northern Ethiopia, which is located 534 kilometres from the Tigrayan regional capital, Mekele. Mekele has experienced conflict between the Federal Government of Ethiopia and regional Tigrayan forces for two years. Thus, from the embassies in Juba and Addis Ababa, teams are working to support and facilitate their safe passage.
In addition to the Kenyan citizens, the government has also received requests from the United Nations and other multi-national organizations to evacuate their workers to Nairobi before they are airlifted to their respective countries. Nairobi is leading mediation efforts under the framework of AU and IGAD, which have called for a cessation of hostilities and de-escalation to return to normalcy. The Kenyan government has an excellent track record of peacebuilding and has previously mediated the South Sudan conflict and the Somalia conflict. Thus, the PS believes Kenya is in a good position to mediate the current conflict as a neutral party.
As the fighting between the Sudanese Army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo rages on, it has led to water and power cuts and internet outages. Countries such as the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Belgium have evacuated their nationals. The Kenyan government remains committed to ensuring the safety of its citizens and is actively working to facilitate their safe passage out of Sudan.
