All Pakistanis will be evacuated from Sudan in next 48 hours: FO

• 93 more Pakistanis stranded in Sudan arrive today.
  
• Fourth batch of evacuees reached Islamabad via flight no PK754.
  
• FO working to repatriate Pakistanis stranded in war-hit Sudan.

The Foreign Office said on Monday that nearly all 1,000 Pakistanis would be evacuated from the conflict-hit Sudan within the next 24 to 48 hours. 

A brief statement issued by the FO stated that 93 more Pakistanis stranded in Sudan had reached the country in the fourth batch of evacuees. It said that the latest batch arrived at Islamabad airport on Monday via flight no PK754.

As per the statement, a total of 636 stranded Pakistanis had returned home as they landed in Karachi via Jeddah separately on five special PAF flights to date. 

With the latest batch of evacuees, as many as 729 Pakistanis have been repatriated to the country so far.

The FO has been working to repatriate Pakistanis stranded in the war zone ever since the conflict began earlier this month.

The Pakistanis in Sudan are first evacuated to Port Sudan and then transferred to Jeddah where the PAF is bringing them back home.

Pakistan thanks Saudi Arabia

Earlier today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — responding to a statement by the Saudi foreign ministry — took to Twitter to thank Saudi Arabia for their support and assistance to distressed Pakistanis in a difficult time.

“We are grateful to the brotherly country of Saudi Arabia for their support and assistance to Pakistanis in distress in this difficult time,” the tweet read.

The Saudi foreign ministry had shared an update on the arrival of Pakistani in Jeddah a day earlier.

“A transport plane belonging to the Royal Saudi Air Force arrived in Jeddah today with 45 Saudi citizens and 36 people of Pakistani nationality, and the ship of H M S ‘Al-Diriyah’ arrived in Jeddah, with 52 nationals of brotherly and friendly countries on board,” the Kingdom’s ministry wrote in its tweet.

What’s happening in Sudan?

Fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

More than 500 people have been killed in the clashes so far.

Daglo’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed fighters whom former strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed in the Darfur region, where they were accused of war crimes including genocide.

The military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following mass citizen protests.

The two generals seized power in a 2021 coup, but later fell out in a bitter power struggle, most recently centred on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.