Home at last: Tanzanians evacuated from Sudan arrive
What you need to know:
- The Tanzanians, most of whom are students who were studying in Sudan, had to be evacuated after fighting broke out between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)
An ATCL Dreamliner plane touched down at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam today at 9:15 PM carrying some 206 Tanzanians who have been evacuated from Sudan, with authorities saying efforts to find the rest to bring them back to the country is ongoing.
The special mission was carried out by Tanzania embassy staff members in Khartoum with the help of officials from the President's Office involved an elaborate logistical effort, especially with fighting escalating by the day.
The Tanzanians, most of whom are students who were studying in Sudan, had to be evacuated after fighting broke out between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, April 27, 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr. Stergomena Tax, said it was not easy to locate all Tanzanians in Sudan.
"The challenge is that many Tanzanians do not register at our embassy; that's why, on the first day, I said there were 200 citizens, but today the number has increased, finding them has become a problem," said Dr. Stergomena.
Dr. Stergomena used the opportunity to call on all Tanzanians living abroad to register at foreign missions so that when challenges arise it will be easier to help them.
Some four, according to Tanzania’s ambassador to Sudan, Salima Kombo Haji, could not make it because they were in areas where heavy fighting was taking place.
"There is one who lost his passport at the last minute; another is a tanner who works in a leather factory, but at the last minute he was unable to leave because there was heavy gunfire in that area," he said.
He said the other two are workers at a mining site where the conflict is yet to reach.
Earlier this week, the foreign ministry announced that it had evacuated Tanzanians from Khartoum in a convoy of buses that made a two-day drive to Gondar in northern Ethiopia; they were later dispatched to Addis Ababa’s Bole Airport.
