ISLAMABAD: Another plane carrying 93 Pakistani nationals stranded in conflict-ridden Sudan arrived in Islamabad on Monday, taking the total number of citizens repatriated from the African country to 636, the foreign office said in a statement.
Several countries, including Pakistan, started evacuation missions to bring back stranded nationals after fierce fighting broke out in Sudan a few weeks earlier. Hundreds have been killed as rival military factions in Sudan fight to control the country.
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and the transport fleet of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) have been bringing back the country’s citizens from Sudan since Friday when the first batch of 149 citizens landed in the southern port city of Karachi. Another flight carrying 140 more citizens landed in Karachi on Sunday, taking the total number of repatriated citizens to 497.
“A PIA flight carrying ninety-three Pakistanis reached Islamabad on Monday,” Radio Pakistan said. “The Foreign Office in a statement stated that six hundred and thirty-six stranded Pakistanis have returned home via Jeddah on five special flights till date,” it added.
Radio Pakistan said that as per the foreign office, the remaining nearly 1,000 Pakistanis will be evacuated from Sudan “in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
Engineer Amir Muqam, the adviser to the prime minister who was also present at the airport, said the government would continue its efforts to bring Pakistanis back home.
Pakistan’s foreign office said on Friday the country’s stranded nationals were evacuated in different phases, the first of which included transporting over 800 Pakistanis from Sudan’s capital Khartoum to Port Sudan city, which it said is “relatively safe.”
It added the second phase of the process involves transporting Pakistani nationals from Port Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia or directly to Pakistan.
Pakistan has thanked Saudi Arabia for transporting its stranded nationals from Port Sudan to Jeddah and for hosting them until they are repatriated to the South Asian country.
