No date to evacuate Mozambicans stranded in Sudan – O País report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

No date to evacuate Mozambicans stranded in Sudan – O País report

11:35 CAT | 24 Apr 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: O País]

The armed conflict in Sudan is now in its second week. Several countries have since last Saturday been evacuating their citizens, but the Mozambican government had by yesterday set no deadline for this. The National Institute for Mozambican Communities Abroad however says there are no Mozambicans among the dead and wounded.

Sudan has been experiencing conflict since the 15th of this month, clashes between Sudan’s army and paramilitary forces leaving hundreds dead. World Health Organization figures suggest more than 400 dead and 300 injured.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, there are 23 Mozambicans in Sudan, of whom 22 are students. Although none have been injured or killed, the conditions they are enduring are not the best, and the uncertainty inherent in the situation is rendering them desperate.

‘O País’ has heard an audio message sent by student Assamo Francisco to a relative. Despite saying that he himself was fine, Assamo said that some students have reported difficulties in accessing food.

“Students are suffering. They have no food and are not cooking properly. As president [of the association], I visited some of them. They told me that the military had entered their residence and wrecked the electrical panel, leaving them without power and dependent on a generator, which they cannot always use, because they must rationalize the money to buy fuel,” Assamo Francisco said.

Confrontations have been escalating, and several countries have since last Saturday been evacuating their citizens. This Sunday, the United States, France, Turkey and the United Kingdom closed their embassies in the country and withdrew all their personnel.

Everyone packed their bags except the Mozambicans, who feel abandoned by the government. Mozambique does not have diplomatic representation in Sudan, which has left the students desperate, after having unsuccessfully sought help from embassies of other countries.

“We asked the Tanzanian ambassador to put us in a vehicle taking Tanzanian students, but he said that there were too many of us and that he would only take us if we were no more than four or five [people],” Francisco related.

‘O País’ contacted the National Institute for Mozambican Communities Abroad (INACE) , a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation institution in Maputo, which confirmed that there were no national citizens injured.

The director of the institution, Armando Muiuane, explained that the delay is the result of bureaucratic problems.

“These are students who went to Sudan on their own or were financed by entities which are not controlled by us. They are not scholarship students of the Instituto de Bolsas de Moçambique. It is only due to this crisis that we now know how many [students] there are and what courses they were taking. It would have been nice if the students had registered in one of the diplomatic missions close to Sudan, such as Cairo (Egypt) or Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and we would have known that they exist and our action would have been much faster in terms of concern about what we should do,” he said.

The director of INACE says that the government has been providing support to Mozambican students, who are in a university that offers security, since last Friday.

“We formed a social network group to facilitate communication. We follow every minute of all the activity carried out, and so far have had no report of any Mozambican casualties,” he clarified.

Muiuane says that the government is dealing with the evacuation of nationals, though without giving dates and places.

“We should already have the Mozambicans out of that theatre of war,” he explained. “There are constraints of various kinds, linked to the movement of people and means of transport. It is necessary to ensure that there is transport, and that the transport is paid for. Clearly, life is more valuable. I guarantee that the means are being considered. We formed a diplomatic cordon with the neighbouring countries to see what they are doing in terms of evacuating their own citizens and also trying to evacuate ours. The idea is for them to be evacuated to countries where they will be safe, and from there returned to Mozambique.”

The clashes in Sudan entered their second week this Monday, with analysts’ forecasts signalling that their end is still a long way off.

Source: O País