206 Tanzanians arrive in Dar from Sudan, four others left behind
People prepare to board a UK military plane to evacuate from Sudan on April 26, 2023. Tanzania has evacuated 206 nationals from war-hit Sudan. PHOTO | ARRON HOARE | MOD | AFP
Tanzania’s government contacted Ethiopian government immigration officials for help.
The Tanzanian government thanked Ethiopia for their kind gesture it showed towards its citizens.
Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister has called on its citizens living in diaspora to make sure that they develop the habit of reporting at their diplomatic offices.
The Tanzanian government has temporarily halted diplomatic operations in Sudan amid ongoing war in Khartoum, and embarked on the evacuation of its 206 citizens who have already arrived in the country.
Tanzania’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Corporation, Dr Stergomena Tax, received the evacuees at Julius Nyerere International Airport.
Among the evacuees was a Tanzanian envoy in Sudan, Silima Kombo Haji. Four Tanzanians who were not available at the time of evacuation from Sudan were left behind.
Addressing people who turned up at the airport to receive their relatives and friends, Dr Stergomena narrated how the Tanzanians were safely evacuated from Sudan to Dar es Salaam, in an exercise that began on April 25.
According to her, the citizens travelled by buses from Khartoum up to the border with Ethiopia at Matima, covering a distance of 900 kilometres in a journey that took them two days.
Ethiopia helps
The Tanzania government had earlier contacted the Ethiopian immigration officials who allowed them to pass through as some of them had no travel documents.
The Tanzanian government thanked the Ethiopian presidency for agreeing to help.
Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister has urged citizens living abroad to be reporting at their diplomatic mission offices and register themselves to make themselves known by their envoys in case of emergencies.
On his part, Haji told the gathering at the airport that majority of Tanzanians evacuated from Sudan were students and that is why it was easy to trace their whereabouts in readiness for evacuation.
He expressed optimism that the four Tanzanians were not available at the time of the evacuation are safe and that they would be brought back home.
