The first batch of 17 Filipino evacuees from Sudan reached Manila on Saturday, with authorities expecting the arrival of a group of 340 more in the coming days.
The first Filipinos left the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Monday, when warring Sudanese factions — the army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces — announced a ceasefire allowing foreign countries to relocate their nationals.
The evacuation efforts have been complicated by major airports becoming battlegrounds, and have been rushed because the truce is due to expire early next week.
Philippine authorities said they have so far managed to get 610 nationals to safety, including nearly 400 who have crossed the border into Egypt over the past three days and are being assisted by the Philippine mission in Cairo, which has jurisdiction over Filipinos in Sudan.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the first batch of evacuees to reach Manila comprised eight hospitality workers who boarded a military evacuation flight operated by Greek authorities and were received by the Philippine embassy in Athens on Friday.
The other nine Filipinos fled Khartoum to Port Sudan, from where they were evacuated to Jeddah by the Royal Saudi Air Force and sent home by the Philippine consulate general.
“The Philippine government is working round-the-clock to assist our countrymen who have left Sudan,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said as he welcomed the evacuees at Manila airport. “Our DFA offices and diplomatic missions are determined to bring our people home safely as soon as possible.”
A statement from the Philippine Presidential Palace, Malacanang, said: “The government is set to repatriate some 340 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from conflict-torn Sudan in the coming days,” and cited Department of Migrant Workers chief Susan Ople, who is now in Egypt, coordinating evacuation efforts. Philippine officials are processing the necessary paperwork for the immediate departure of the Filipinos from the northeastern African country.
“Ople told President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. that a DMW team and a contingent from the Philippine embassy in Cairo are now tending to the Filipinos seeking to return home after being caught in the midst of clashes between two warring factions in Sudan,” the palace statement said. “There have been delays in the processing at the Egyptian border due to the influx of evacuees.”
According to DFA data, at least another 45 Filipinos are currently awaiting evacuation in Sudan.
