Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government rescues 542 Indonesian nationals during the first stage of evacuation from Sudan that is engulfed in military conflict since April 15.
"Some 542 Indonesian nationals are on the way from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia," Protection for Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities Director at the Foreign Affairs Ministry Judha Nugraha noted through a message, Tuesday.
Jeddah will be the stopover for Indonesian nationals evacuated from Sudan before they are flown to the country.
The number of Indonesian nationals evacuated during the first stage increased, from 538 people, according to the figure announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi on Monday, to 542 people.
Nugraha explained that this additional figure came from Indonesian university students that join the Khartoum Embassy team and Indonesians in Port Sudan evacuated through other routes.
"Meanwhile, the second stage of evacuation is executed from Khartoum to Port Sudan," he remarked.
Related news: Some 538 Indonesians evacuated from Sudan through Jeddah: Minister
According to Marsudi, rescuing Indonesian nationals from Sudan is not easy since it is undertaken amid the conflict that continues to occur between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Given that the situation on the field shifts rapidly coupled with the issue of fuel limitation for vehicles transporting the evacuated nationals, Indonesia cannot evacuate everyone at the same time.
Within the second stage of the evacuation, the government plans to evacuate 298 Indonesian nationals.
However, the figure will increase after the minister urges other nationals to immediately report themselves to the embassy to be evacuated from Sudan.
According to the Khartoum Indonesian Embassy's data, it was recorded that 1,209 Indonesian nationals live in Sudan. Most of them are students that reside in the capital city of Khartoum.
The presence and safety of Indonesian nationals has become a cause for concern since Khartoum and its surrounding area is the main deadly battleground between SAF and RSF.
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