Over 100 Kenyan students evacuated from war-torn Khartoum

With more than 400 people killed and 3,550 injured in Sudan’s conflict, Kenyan students have activated a passage from the capital Khartoum to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

The 1410-kilometre journey, however, was prompted by the inability of nations to airlift their citizens, due to extensive damage to the Khartoum International Airport by the warring parties.

Despite intermittent internet outages, Citizen TV managed to reach out to some students via WhatsApp.

Mwashame, one of the Kenyan students said on Sunday 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.”

Dr Korir Sing’oei, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary says the government’s focus is to get Kenyans out of harm’s way.

“It is difficult to land there. So, the plan is to get Kenyans to Port Sudan from where they will be airlifted to Jeddah and then hopefully to Nairobi,” he said.

The more than 100 Kenyan students who have left Khartoum for the Ethiopian border however, have to pass through Gondar City in Northern Ethiopia, which is located some 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.

“From our embassies in Juba and Addis Ababa, we have teams working and to support and facilitate their safe passage,” Sing’oei said.

The government says it has 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.

PS Korir said Nairobi is leading mediation efforts both under the framework of AU and IGAD which have called for a cessation of hostilities and de-escalation and a return to normalcy.

“Nairobi is known as the capital for peacebuilding. Regionally and globally, we mediated the South Sudan conflict, we mediated the Somalia conflict. We are in a very, very good place to mediate the current conflict because Kenya is not in any way involved in the dispute. It is a neutral party,” the PS said.

The fighting between the Sudanese Army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces RSF that is led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has led to water and power cuts as well as internet outages.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Belgium are among the countries that have evacuated their nationals, as fighting intensifies in Khartoum and other major cities in Sudan.