Evacuated from Sudan amid clashes, Turkish citizens begin to return home

By Gokhan Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) - Nearly 200 Turkish citizens who were evacuated from Sudan via Ethiopia arrived in Istanbul early Wednesday as the fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary forces entered the second week.

A Turkish Airlines plane, which took off from Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa with 189 passengers on board, landed at Istanbul Airport at 1.10 a.m. local time (2210GMT).

Naci Akgun, an evacuee, said he was running a furniture business in Sudan, and when the fighting broke out, he had to leave everything behind and return to Türkiye.

He expressed his appreciation to the Turkish officials for their efforts to evacuate them from Sudan.

"Conditions were harsh. All countries wanted to evacuate their citizens at the same time … We are the first convoy to return to Türkiye. We are very happy. We thank the Turkish embassies in Sudan and Ethiopia."

About the evacuation process, Akgun said they reached the Ethiopian border in 12 hours and were transported to the nearest airport in the morning and later took a flight to Addis Ababa airport.

Over 1,600 Turkish citizens were transported to Ethiopia from Sudan by bus, Turkish diplomatic sources said Tuesday.

Ankara's efforts to evacuate Turkish citizens in Sudan to Türkiye via Ethiopia continue, said the sources.

They added that the Turkish citizens were the first to be transferred from the Sudanese-Ethiopian border to the airport in the border city of Gondar with vehicles provided by the Turkish Embassy in Addis Ababa.

They then fly to Addis Ababa by planes leased from Ethiopian Airlines and are being brought to Türkiye via the Addis Ababa-Istanbul route, according to sources.

Akgun said the conflicts are still ongoing in Sudan. "Street fighting continues. May Allah help the Sudanese people. Our Sudanese brothers are good people. Sudan is a beautiful country. Hopefully, this shall pass and we will return (to Sudan)," he added.

Mehmet Kazan, another evacuee, said: "We come from Khartoum, from war. Thanks to our ambassadors and everyone who helped us. We thank our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan very much. God bless everyone. We arrived (in Türkiye) safely."

He also mentioned the difficulties of surviving in a war zone and the evacuation process.

"We came out of the war. We kept ourselves safe by staying at home. Those were the days which were very challenging, we really lived the war. Our evacuation process was a bit difficult, but thankfully it went well."

On April 15, fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and its surroundings.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the paramilitaries over military security reform. The reform envisages full RSF participation in the military, one of the main issues in negotiations by international and regional parties for a transition to civilian, democratic rule in Sudan.

As of Tuesday morning, at least 427 people have been killed and more than 3,700 have been injured in Sudan, according to Volker Perthes, special representative of the UN secretary-general for Sudan.