Four Swiss evacuated from Sudan thanks to Germans and Dutch

In this photo provided by the Spanish Defence Ministry, citizens of different nationalities fleeing from Sudan sit inside a Spanish Air Force aircraft on its way to Madrid on Monday Keystone

Four Swiss citizens managed to leave Sudan on Monday on flights organised by Germany and the Netherlands. Bern, meanwhile, says it is working on the return of around 30 dual nationals who want to leave the crisis-ridden country.

Two Swiss had been taken to Germany and the other two to the Netherlands, the foreign ministry told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Tuesday.

The ministry said it would “continue its efforts to support Swiss nationals who have expressed the wish to leave Sudan”.

At the same time, the ministry said it was looking for solutions for the 30 or so dual nationals who still wanted to leave the country in northeastern Africa. The situation is complicated by the fact that Sudanese need an exit permit to leave the country, said Ambassador Christian Winter. This could not be obtained due to the lack of a government in Sudan.

On Tuesday Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis received a plane with six staff members of the Swiss Embassy in Khartoum and three escorts at Bern Airport. All the embassy staff were now safe and most of them were in Switzerland, Cassis said. He thanked the states that had made themselves available to facilitate the evacuations.

Crumbling humanitarian situation

Sudanese and foreigners streamed out of the capital of Khartoum and other battle zones on Tuesday, as fighting shook a new three-day truce brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Aid agencies raised increasing alarm over the crumbling humanitarian situation in a country reliant on outside help.

A series of short ceasefires have either failed outright or brought only intermittent lulls in the fighting that has raged between forces loyal to the country’s two top generals since April 15.

At least 459 people, including civilians and fighters, have been killed, and over 4,000 wounded since fighting began, the UN health agency said, citing Sudan’s health ministry. Among them were 166 deaths and over 2,300 wounded in Khartoum, it said.