NAIROBI, Kenya April 24 -The first group of Kenyan evacuees from Sudan landed in Nairobi on Monday night.
The students traveled by road to South Sudan where they boarded the military aircraft that flew from Nairobi to pick them up.
Defense Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale on Monday night received the students at the JKIA and said they were all students at an international university in Sudan. The CS added that more Kenyans were scheduled to be airlifted home.
“We condemn the senseless killings, destruction of property and general unrest in Sudan and encourage the warring factions to give genuine and open dialogue a chance,” said Duale.
More evacuations are underway, with the ministry of foreign affairs saying three evacuation programs were active.
Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua thanked countries that allowed Kenyans fleeing from Sudan to cross the border and “granted permission for Kenyan planes to overfly their airspace.”
Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Roseline Njogu, shared photos of students who are part of a group of 29 currently in Gondor, Ethiopia after fleeing Sudan, saying the group would be flown back home later.
The ministry said hundreds of Kenyans were enroute to Port Sudan from where they will be airlifted.
As fighting continues in Sudan, several countries have evacuated their citizens to other countries including Djibouti, Egypt and Ethiopia — and some back home.
Countries have scrambled to evacuate their diplomats and civilians as fighting raged in central, densely populated parts of the capital.
CS Mutua said the three programs are estimated to ferry over 300- 400 Kenyans.
Mutua further said Kenya had already facilitated 29 Kenyan students to cross the border to Ethiopia and were on their way to Gondor where they will fly to Addis Ababa then to Nairobi.
The third program, a larger group of Kenyans, is on a well-planned program of travel and will be boarded on two aircrafts which will ferry them from Port Sudan to Jeddah and thereafter travel to Nairobi by Kenya Airways.
The Kenyan Government set up an emergency committee to work towards evacuating citizens stranded in Sudan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs disclosed that the Special Inter-Agency Facilitation and Emergency Committee on Sudan will manage the evacuation of international staff in a coordinated manner
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