Global Courant 2023-04-26 14:37:58
ISTANBUL
Nearly 200 Turkish citizens evacuated from Sudan via Ethiopia, as the clashes between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces entered its second week, arrived in Istanbul in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Turkish Airlines plane, which took off from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa with 189 passengers, landed at Istanbul Airport at 01:10 local time (2210GMT).
Released, Naci Akgün said that he was running a furniture business in Sudan and when the conflict broke out, he had to leave everything behind and return to Turkey.
He expressed his appreciation to the Turkish authorities for their efforts to evacuate them from Sudan.
“Conditions were harsh. All countries wanted to evacuate their citizens at the same time… We are the first convoy to return to Turkey. We are very happy. We thank the Turkish embassies in Sudan and Ethiopia.”
Providing information about the evacuation process, Akgün said that they reached the Ethiopian border in 12 hours and were taken to the nearest airport in the morning, and then they set off to Addis Ababa airport by plane.
More than 1,600 Turkish nationals have been transferred by bus from Sudan to Ethiopia, Turkish diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.
The sources said Ankara’s efforts to evacuate Turkish citizens in Sudan to Turkey via Ethiopia continue.
They added that Turkish citizens were first transferred from the Sudan-Ethiopia border to the airport in the border city of Gondar with the vehicles provided by the Turkish Embassy in Addis Ababa.
Later, the suspects, who flew to Addis Ababa on planes leased from Ethiopian Airlines, are brought to Turkey via the Addis Ababa-Istanbul route.
Akgün said that conflicts continue in Sudan. “Street clashes continue. May God help the people of Sudan. Our Sudanese brothers and sisters are good people. Sudan is a beautiful country. Hopefully this too shall pass and we will return (to Sudan).”
Another person who was evacuated, Mehmet Kazan, said, “We came from Khartoum, from the war. Thank you to our ambassadors and everyone who helped us. We thank our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan very much. May Allah be pleased with everyone. We arrived (in Turkey) safely.”
He also talked about the difficulties of surviving in the war zone and the evacuation process.
“We came out of the war. We kept ourselves safe by staying at home. It was a tough day, we really went through the war. Our evacuation process was a bit difficult, but thankfully it went well.”
On April 15, clashes broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in and around Khartoum.
In recent months there has been a disagreement between the military and paramilitaries over military security reform. The reform envisages the full participation of the RSF in the military, which is one of the main issues of negotiations between the international and regional parties for the transition to a civilian, democratic government in Sudan.
As of Tuesday morning, at least 427 people had been killed and more than 3,700 injured in Sudan, according to Volker Perthes, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy to Sudan.
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