Fighting in Khartoum blocks Uganda ‘rescue’ plans

0
2004

Heavy fighting between rival government military forces in Khartoum has blocked Uganda’s plans to evacuate its citizens trapped inside Sudan.

At least 300 Ugandans are stranded in Khartoum City and surrounding areas due to the raging conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces. Although the Ugandan government is trying to evacuate its citizens, the situation remains fluid and difficult.

Uganda’s ambassador to Khartoum, Dr Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu, has advised Ugandan nationals to continue sheltering in place and lie low until the embassy closely monitors the current conflict in Sudan.

Among the trapped Ugandans are 120 workers, 116 students, 14 hospital patients, 19 in transit, and six who were on short visits to Khartoum.

The German government also failed to evacuate its 150 nationals. Sudan Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, are locked in an all-out war that has claimed hundreds of lives.

The Uganda government has approached the International Organisation for Migration and the UN, requesting assistance in bringing back Ugandans.