Pakistan completes evacuation from Sudan

ISLAMABAD: The evacuation of Pakistanis out of crisis-hit Sudan ended on Tuesday, with more than 1,000 nationals taken to safety since fighting erupted, the foreign ministry said.

Clashes in Sudan have killed more than 500 people, displaced tens of thousands and triggered an international exodus.

“We have successfully and safely evacuated over 1,000 Pakistanis out of Sudan,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “With this, our evacuation operations out of Sudan have ended,” it said, adding that it included all Pakistanis who had wanted to leave. The final group of Pakistani nationals was repatriated to Jeddah on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, who asked not to be named, said. The evacuees were taken by boat from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the support of Saudi Arabia and China.

Most have already made the onward journey to Pakistan.