MANILA, Philippines – The first batch of Filipinos from conflict-hit Sudan returned to the Philippines on Saturday afternoon, April 29, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced.

The 17 Filipino evacuees from the African country arrived in Manila on Saturday afternoon after flying out from Athens, Greece, and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo, along with officials from the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs, Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), welcomed the evacuees.

According to the DFA, eight of the rescued Filipinos were hotel workers in Sudan who boarded a military evacuation flight following a communication between the Greek government and the Philippine embassy in Athens. The Philippine embassy received the group in Athens on Friday, April 28, and immediately arranged their flight back to the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the nine other Filipinos, including an infant, fled from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, via Port Sudan and boarded a C130 plane of the Saudi Royal Air Force bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah received the group on Thursday, April 27.

The DFA said a total of 610 Filipinos had left Khartoum, 391 of whom crossed the Egyptian side of the border using buses chartered by the Philippine embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and the Philippine Honorary Consulate in Sudan. The embassies are arranging the evacuees’ temporary visas and repatriation flights, while the DMW and OWWA are preparing shelter and welfare assistance for them.

The foreign affairs department said another 45 Filipinos are expected to be evacuated by sea from Sudan to Saudi Arabia.

On April 15, Sudan’s paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), seized the presidential palace and the Khartoum airport in an apparent coup attempt. At the height of the conflict, the RSF accused the Sudan army of carrying out a plot by loyalists of ousted former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

The World Health Organization said the conflict had killed at least 459 people and injured more than 4,000.

Repatriation

On Saturday, the DMW also announced that the government was set to repatriate at least 340 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Sudan in the coming days. A contingent of the migrant workers agency, including a a group from the Philippine embassy in Cairo, was assisting Filipinos who had safely evacuated from the war-affected African country.

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DMW Secretary Susan Oplen flew to Egypt to lead the distribution of welfare assistance to the evacuated OFWs. – with reports from Reuters/Rappler.com