Indonesia Evacuates More Than 800 Citizens from Sudan Conflict

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Indonesia is evacuating more than 800 of its citizens from Sudan. Alongside other countries, Indonesia has used the opportunity of the calmer situation in Sudan after days of fiery conflict between the armed forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which left hundreds of people died. 

However, some Indonesian citizens refused to follow the evacuation.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said there are two phases of the evacuation. As many as 569 people joined the first evacuation phase. Among them, 557 evacuees already arrived in Jeddah on Wednesday morning (26/4/2023). 

The other 12 citizens include 10 people from the Indonesian embassy in Khartoum. Two others are still completing their travel documents.

Minister Retno said the evacuation process is "complicated". For the second phase, there are 328 people who will be evacuated, including five children. They are already waiting at the Port Sudan City, most of them are students.

"Team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is led by the Director of Indonesian Citizen Protection is currently crossing from Jeddah to Port Sudan City to help the evacuation phase 2 and finish all the matters related to this evacuation which are very complicated," said Minister Retno on Wednesday evening.

Moreover, Minister Retno Marsudi said that six Australians and one Sudanese are also included in this second evacuation. 

The ministry also found that there are 937 Indonesian citizens in Sudan, previous data indicated there were 1.209 people.