Aircraft dispatched to Djibouti to collect Greeks
A C-27 transport aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force took off on Monday afternoon from Aswan Airport in Egypt to Djibouti to collect the Greeks who have been transferred there from war-torn Sudan.
The flight back to Greece is most likely to depart for Greece on Tuesday.
More than 100 Greeks, including Metropolitan Savvas of Nubia, remain trapped in different parts of Sudan, where bloody clashes between paramilitaries and the country’s army have been raging since April 15.
According to reports, some are hiding in their homes and attempts to escape are being met with obstacles.
The metropolitan reportedly attempted to leave in a French caravan, but when he emerged from the building where he had taken refuge, gunfire erupted again, causing him to return to the safety of the building.
Simultaneous operations to evacuate foreign citizens from Sudan have been under way since Sunday afternoon.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Dendias will brief political parties about the situation in Sudan on Tuesday. He will meet with representatives of political parties at the foreign affairs ministry at noon.
Dendias spoke earlier on Monday with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry about the further coordination of efforts to provide assistance to Greeks in Sudan and their extraction from the country.
Some operations are being conducted from the air, but some countries have opted to remove their nationals by sea, via Port Sudan in the Red Sea, which is 800 km from Khartoum.
More than 420 people have been killed and 3,700 injured in the clashes, which are mostly taking place in Khartoum and Darfur, according to the World Health Organization.
