Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has confirmed that 163 Irish citizens and their dependents have been successfully evacuated from Sudan as rival military factions agreed to extend their ceasefire by another 72 hours.
“The evacuation is going well, we have 163 citizens and dependents evacuated – that’s an increase of 41 on the numbers yesterday but it’s a fluid situation (in terms of how many Irish citizens remain) as some of those who were evacuated hadn’t registered,” he said.
“The majority had registered and some registered as soon as they saw the evacuation in train and happening, while others had taken journeys independently, so the situation is very fluid but it’s plus 41 this morning (in terms of those evacuated) that’s a big move forward,” he added.
Mr Martin paid tribute to Ireland’s EU colleagues, the UK and Jordan for their help and assistance as well as Ireland’s Emergency Civil Assistance Team (ECAT) which had been based in Djibouti but was now operating from Cyprus which was serving as its base.
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“They are operating now from base and given the very difficult circumstances, it’s very gratifying to see so many people have got out of Sudan in terms of our citizens and their dependents,” said Mr Martin at an event in Cork to mark 50 years of Irish membership of the European Union.
A Derry man who was recently evacuated from Sudan said due to the unpredictability of the situation in the country, “you just have to sort of close your eyes and wait until you arrive, hope that you arrive safely”.
Brian McDaid, from Derry, said initially he was resistant to the idea of leaving the country through the options available.
“For me, we had been hearing stories of people leaving Sudan by bus. And that’s a long journey going to other parts of Sudan or all the way through to Egypt,” he told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland.
“I was resistant to the idea. I was waiting for evacuation, some sort of EU evacuation plan to be put in place. And I think when it became more of a matter of urgency to leave, when we realised just how unpredictable it is and how very real, I think [there were] fears of soldiers or units who were maybe departing, retreating were going into people’s homes.”
Mr McDaid said he “really wanted to avoid that” and he had fears that the fighting “could very easily spill out and just become a lot more sporadic”.
“[There was] a growing danger, a growing risk. And like I said, the threat of soldiers coming into my home, I was just petrified of that. So we made the arrangements and I was due to get on a bus in the morning and then the opportunity to go to the Spanish ambassador’s residence where people had gathered, that presented itself,” he said.
“So I had to make a very quick decision and they went with that. And yeah, it was the right decision for me and my family.”
Mr McDaid said he and his family sheltered at the Spanish ambassador’s residence all day, as there was “heavy fighting” outside so their departure had to be delayed.
“I left at six and it took us a long time to get to the airfield. And that was yeah, it was a very stressful journey. Lots of checkpoints driving through and eerily still, I mean, quiet, a war zone essentially at that point,” he said.
“But again, because it’s so unpredictable, you just have to sort of close your eyes and wait until you arrive, hope that you arrive safely. And we did. So we were very fortunate.”
He added: “But lots of people are still left. And obviously the fighting continues. So it’s becoming a much bigger problem and lots of people unable to leave who are just seeing their whole city just crumble around them.”
Asked about the plight of the family of Dublin based vascular surgeon, Mr Elrasheid Kheirelseid, a naturalised Irish citizen who has been trying to get his 78-year-old father and two sisters out of Khartoum, Mr Martin acknowledged that it was a challenging situation.
Mr Kheirelseid told The Irish Times earlier this week that he had been in touch with the Irish Embassy in Nairobi in Kenya but was told that without him being physically present in the Sudanese capital, his family cannot get aboard an evacuation flight.
He also said that he had been told that because his three family members are not minor children or a spouse, they are not considered dependents even though he supports them from his employment in Ireland.
Mr Martin said: “It’s very traumatic for him (Mr Kheirelseid) and his family and for many families but there are basic operational ground rules for evacuation, normally its citizens and dependents and dependents have been ordinarily defined as spouses or indeed children.
“That’s the modus operandi of those who evacuate and provide the planes so that is a challenging situation … – we have tried to be as flexible as we can in terms of the evacuation and working with our other member states within the European Union, but we will continue to monitor the situation.”
Mr Martin said that he was hoping that the cease fire agreed between the Sudanese army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum, would hold as it had implications not just for Sudan but for the entire Horn of Africa.
It’s estimated that since the conflicted erupted earlier this month between the forces of rival military leaders, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, over 500 people have been killed and over 4,000 people have been injured.
Mr Martin said: “We hope the ceasefire will hold because I am very concerned about the widening humanitarian crisis that will unfold in Sudan as a result of this war - there’s too much conflict in the world, there are too many resources wars in the world.
“It’s very clear to me, the Sudan war is a war that is fundamentally about resources – other actors are involved and becoming involved by proxy in this war but it’s the people of Sudan because prior to this about 12 million Sudanese were suffering from significant food insecurity.
“That number will multiply hugely if this war continues, and it will create its own migration pressures as well and more challenges and trauma for people so every effort must be made to end this conflict and to stop the violence.”
