‘Difficult days’: Evacuees talk about perilous escape from Sudan

Late Monday, US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said Barhan and Dagro had agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire.

Still, those who arrived on Saudi soil on Monday were grateful to be out of a country where doctors’ unions report “morgues full” and “corpses littering the streets.” said there is.

Saudi “leverage”

Saudi Arabia announced its first successful civilian evacuation from Sudan on Saturday, welcoming 150 people, including foreign diplomats and officials in Jeddah.

Earlier Monday, a C-130 Hercules military jet flew dozens of South Korean civilians, including small children and nuns dressed in white and blue, to King Abdullah Air Force Base in Jeddah. headed to

Altogether, 356 people have fled the Kingdom from Sudan so far, 101 Saudis and 255 foreigners from more than 20 countries, the official Saudi news agency reported.

Saudi state media has covered the initiative from end to end, with words of gratitude from countries whose citizens have benefited.

As the Navy frigate approached the port of Jeddah on Monday night, the state-run Al-Ekhbariya channel broadcast images of passengers waving and smiling, while others recorded the scene on their smartphones.

Staring at the camera, a Saudi man waved a green Saudi flag emblazoned with a sword in one hand and a green passport in the other, proclaiming, “This is the strongest passport in the world.”

Columnist Abd Khal, writing for the privately owned newspaper Okaz, said Saudi Arabia’s organization of relatively quick evacuation planes and boats highlighted the kingdom’s “international value.”

Umar Karim, a Saudi Arabian political expert at the university, said: “This undoubtedly confirms the Kingdom’s status as a central actor in the regional crisis and the leverage it has on both sides of this conflict. It shows that they are eager to take advantage of the of Birmingham.

But Saudi officials are under pressure to do more than facilitate evacuation, given their close ties to the two generals in the army fighting in and around Khartoum.

“Saudi Arabia is playing an important role in Sudan’s ceasefire diplomacy,” Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group told AFP.

“Governments in Africa and the West are seeking help from Riyadh to persuade the Sudanese military to give them a chance to negotiate.”