Colombo seeks New Delhi’s help in evacuating Sri Lankans in Sudan

Sri Lanka has reached out to Indian authorities for help in evacuating its citizens stranded in Sudan, where two generals are fighting for power amid an escalating crisis.

COLOMBO

Sri Lanka has reached out to Indian authorities for help in evacuating its citizens stranded in Sudan, where two generals are fighting for power amid an escalating crisis.

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“Our missions in New Delhi and Cairo are in contact with the Indian External Affairs Ministry and mission in Khartoum in Sudan. They offered to provide passage from Port Sudan to Jeddah, according to latest updates from our mission in Cairo,” Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told The Hindu Tuesday morning. According to him, 41 Sri Lankans are currently in Sudan, and are awaiting assistance.

Through Monday, several countries pushed with evacuations of their citizens from Sudan that the UN chief warned, is “on the edge of the abyss”, following 10 days of brutal fighting between rival forces.

The View from India | Two Generals, power hunger, and strife: An escalating crisis in Sudan

So far, at least 427 people have been killed and over 3,700 injured, according to estimates by the UN, which reported tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians “fleeing areas affected by fighting, including to Chad, Egypt and South Sudan”.