Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 28) — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the last batch of Filipinos who want to be evacuated from war-stricken Sudan will leave on Friday.
“There will be the last two buses that we rented and there will be 116 Filipinos who will ride those buses and get to the border,” DFA Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
De Vega said they are expected to leave at 9 a.m., or 3 p.m. Philippine time.
He noted this batch may still be followed by another one since there are Filipinos in Khartoum who are deciding at the last minute.
“If there are still Filipinos left, we’ll find a way to get them across,” he said.
The Philippine government on April 26 raised the crisis status in Sudan to Alert Level 3 due to the ongoing conflict there.
The fighting is between forces loyal to two top generals each battling for control of the country, two years after they jointly launched a military coup and derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy.
De Vega said 350 Filipinos from the Sudanese capital Khartoum already arrived at the Sudan-Egypt border and are just waiting for their entry visas before they are transported to Aswan, then to Cairo to be able to fly back to the Philippines.
There were also some Filipinos in Sudan who left with their employers after the alert level was raised, he noted.
Meanwhile, De Vega said around 200 Filipinos decided to stay in the strife-torn country for now.
De Vega urged the Filipinos who will be going home to the Philippines not to return to Sudan soon given the unstable situation.
