Most Thai nationals living in Sudan have been successfully evacuated to Saudi Arabia yesterday and are expected to return to Thailand this week.
The decision to conduct the repatriation was made during talks led by National Security Council secretary-general Supoj Malaniyom on Saturday, followed by the approval of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in his capacity as Defence Minister.
Gen Supoj said yesterday that 150 of the 215 Thai nationals who wanted to return to Thailand had to take a 10-hour bus trip from Khartoum to a Sudanese port on the Red Sea.
According to air force spokesman AVM Prapas Sornchaidee, bus transportation was one of three means to evacuate the Thai citizens and the safest, as the security situation around Khartoum airport could not be guaranteed.
They were then taken by boat to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and then bussed to the Saudi capital Riyadh, where they will be flown out today in aircraft sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the air force in collaboration with Saudi authorities.
Supoj: Thais willbe taken care of
The operation is expected to be finished within two days, or when no more Thai nationals want to leave Sudan, Gen Supoj said. He said the council has ordered the Honorary Consulate-General in Sudan to care for Thai nationals who want to stay in the country.
Gen Supoj said the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) would be responsible for repatriating the students, mostly Thai Muslims.
The SBPAC will also manage related issues, such as transferring the students’ study credits from their schools after they return to Thailand, he said.
Kanchana Patarachoke, director-general of the MFA’s Department of Information, added that internet problems created a lack of information about the operation, including the number of those successfully evacuated.
She also said everyone was expected to be transferred from Sudan by yesterday or were in a safe location in the country.
Fierce clashes erupted in Sudan on April 15 between forces allied to two generals — army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — who jointly seized power in a 2021 coup.
The World Health Organization said more than 420 people have been killed and over 3,700 wounded in the intense fighting.