About 100 people, including Portuguese nationals expelled by Spain from Sudan, arrived in Madrid on a military plane on Monday, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Alvarez said in a statement. Social network Twitter. The plane landed at the Torrejon de Artos military base in the Madrid region at around 11:20 am local time (10:20 am in Lisbon).
Spain announced on Sunday night that it was able to evacuate a hundred people, including a Portuguese woman, from Sudan as part of a movement of foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the African country due to violent clashes a year ago. week.
The Spanish government said in a statement that the Spanish military plane left Khartoum at 23:00 local time (22:00 in Lisbon) on Sunday “with around a hundred passengers”, and stopped in Djibouti.
Apart from the Spaniards, the passengers included Portuguese, Italians, Poles, Irish, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Colombians and Argentines, Sudanese, according to detailed sources from the Spanish Ministry of Defense.
José Manuel Álvarez, in an interview with Spanish public radio (RTVE) this Monday morning, said it was a “very delicate operation” because it took place in the middle of a “military conflict” but ended without it. incident
According to Spain’s MNE, the reintegration of people who want to leave Sudan within this operation is a very complicated matter, and he said that the team that arrived in Madrid this Monday included all Spanish embassy officials in the African country. “In the context of this war, which we hope will be brief, no diplomatic relations are possible,” he said.
Portuguese MNE, João Gomes Cravinho, said today that 11 Portuguese nationals have been removed from Sudan. According to Gómez Cravinho, of the 22 Portuguese the government signaled in Sudan, 21 had “left a very dangerous situation” and one wanted to stay in the country on his way to Portugal.
Gómez Cravinho clarified that there are several tasks to remove people from Sudan, by which Portuguese citizens are leaving. “It is not the integration of the European Union, there is a very close integration with allies, especially France and Spain, mine and the Minister of Defense”, he said.
“We are looking at whether it makes sense to send a Portuguese air force asset or, conversely, they can come to close quarters with other friendly aircraft and then the air force will pick them up,” he added.
In an operation coordinated by the Italian Foreign Ministry, Italy announced the return of 136 people, including Portuguese, from Sudan’s capital Khartoum to Djibouti. “[Os] “105 Italian citizens and 31 foreigners, including Portuguese, Australian, Greek, British and Swedish, were transferred to Djibouti,” the Italian government said in a statement on Sunday night.
The operation was carried out “in collaboration with other European countries and allies”, creating “an international flight authorized to reach the military base in Djibouti”.
By the end of the day, around 1,200 European citizens are expected to be removed from Sudan, EU High Commissioner for Foreign Policy Joseph Borrell said.
France sent its navy warship to Port Sudan to support efforts to rescue foreigners in the country, according to two diplomatic sources cited by Reuters.
Since April 15, there have been violent clashes in Sudan between the forces of Commander Abdul Fattah al-Burhane. Truly After the 2021 coup, General Mohamed Hamdan Tagalo, a former rival of the country, commands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group.
According to the World Health Organization, the provisional balance of the conflict indicates that more than 420 people have died and 3700 have been injured.
Updated at 5:26 p.m. Information on the removal of a Portuguese national from Sudan on a flight arranged by Spain.
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