MORE than 400 Filipinos have been evacuated from Sudan amid a shaky 72-hour ceasefire between warring military forces, according to the presidential palace.
The Filipinos, most migrant workers and their family members, have reached “safe zones” in the Egyptian border, the Presidential Communications Office said in a statement on Thursday.
Many of those rescued by the Philippine government had traveled to Egypt via the Wadi Halfa Highway, it said.
More than 500 people have died in air raids and artillery attacks since fighting erupted in Sudan on April 15, according to Al Jazeera News. Thousands have been wounded and hospitals destroyed, with many residents — some on foot — trying to flee the war.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday night raised the alert in Sudan to Level 3, allowing voluntary repatriation or evacuation.
Filipinos fleeing Sudan without their passport or IDs would still get aid from the Philippine government, and their documents will be taken care of when they reach the border, the palace said.
Defense officer-in-charge Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. is working with DFA so the defense attaché from the United Arab Emirates and Israel could help evacuate Filipinos to Egypt.
The United Nations (UN) International Organization on Migration would send a team of officials to help evacuate overseas Filipino workers caught in the armed conflict in Sudan, the Department of Migrant Workers said on Thursday.
The UN agency would help set up welfare centers in Cairo to help evacuated Filipinos, Migrant Workers Secretary Maria Susana V. Ople told ABS-CBN Teleradyo on Thursday.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose A. De Vega earlier cited the lack of law enforcement personnel from Manila and nearby territories in Sudan who could help evacuate or rescue Filipinos there.
“The Department of National Defense continues to closely coordinate with concerned agencies to address the immediate needs of Filipinos seeking repatriation,” the palace said.
Ms. Ople said there were still about 400 Filipinos seeking assistance and repatriation from war-torn areas in Sudan.
Ms. Ople was in Cairo to lead a team of officials in helping evacuated OFWs and to hand out financial aid. Each Filipino would get $200, she told a news briefing on Tuesday.
Sudan’s army has expressed willingness to extend a ceasefire for a further 72 hours amid continuing battles with the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum.
“It’s really bringing them to safety from Khartoum that’s difficult,” Ms. Ople earlier said. “We want to take advantage of the ceasefire to bring them to safety.”
Philippine Ambassador to Egypt Ezzedin Tago and Vice Consul Bojer Capati figured in a car accident while in a rush to get to the Sudan-Egypt border to help Filipino evacuees, the palace said. Both were safe.
More than 60% of healthcare facilities in Khartoum were closed because of the conflict, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. It added that it was assessing the threat posed to public health after fighters in Sudan occupied a national laboratory holding samples of deadly diseases.
Civilians were also suffering from a shortage in basic goods including food, medicines and fuel.
About 50,000 acutely malnourished children have had treatment disrupted due to the conflict and hospitals that were still functioning faced shortages in medical supplies, power and water, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
The ceasefire will expire at 10 p.m. GMT Thursday or 6 a.m. on Friday, Manila time.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat have discussed ways to work together to end the fighting in Sudan, the US State Department said in a statement on Wednesday.
The African Union leadership remained “essential in pressing the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to immediately cease military operations and allow unhindered humanitarian access,” it added.
Some of the heaviest battles on Wednesday were in Omdurman, a city on the northern edge of Khartoum where the army was fighting Rapid Support Forces reinforcements from other regions of Sudan, according to Reuters.
Warplanes flying over the northern suburbs of Khartoum were drawing heavy anti-aircraft fire from the paramilitaries, AFP reported. — Norman P. Aquino, John Victor D. Ordoñez and Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza