The government of South Sudan said it has a huge number of citizens in Sudan particularly in Khartoum where there is fighting but said they have no plan to evacuate them.
“We have a very large population in Sudan in most of the state. There are over 800,000.We have not yet decided as a country to evacuate them but we encourage all the South Sudanese to remain in the areas that are considered to be safe,” said Deng Dau Deng, acting minster of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
The Minister told The Radio Community that despites government having no plan to evacuate South Sudanese from the fragile Sudan, it is concern with their safety and asked them to remain indoors until the situation is calm.
On April 16, the fighting broke out in Khartoum between forces loyal to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, President of Sudan Sovereign council and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces over the failed planned integration of forces belonging to the two leaders.
The fighting since then has claimed over 400 lives and it’s still escalating despite several calls for cessation of hostilities.
Deng encourage personal evacuation of South Sudanese living in Khartoum saying the individuals are allowed to come using safe boarders.
“If there are people who have decided to come using the safe road to South Sudan, they are also encouraged,” He said. South Sudan president Salva Kiir is leading the IGAD team for Sudan peace process after he was selected by the IGAD heads of state on April, 17 along with two other presidents of Kenya William Ruto and Djibouti Ismail Omar.
On Thursday Kiir said he could not lead the team to Khartoum due to continuous “flying of bullets” in the country’s airport but said they ready waiting to be given a green light from Sudan. He reiterated his call to the warring parties to ceasefire and seek peaceful means through dialogue.
