First batch of Somali evacuees arrive at Aden Adde airport

GOOBJOOG NEWS | MOGADISHU: The first group of Somali citizens evacuated from Sudan have arrived at the Aden Adde airport and were welcomed by government officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Acting secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amb. Abdirahman Noor Dinari said the 18 Somali citizens were evacuated from Buluja, at the border of Sudan and South Sudan.

Amb. Danari said the Somali citizens were evacuated by a Kenyan Air Force airplane and that efforts to evacuate more citizens who have been affected by the conflict in Sudan are ongoing.

He disclosed that over 500 Somali citizens are expected to be flown back into the country.

Meanwhile, the two warring parties in the Sudan conflict; the Sudan National Army and the Rapid Support Forces have shown no sign that they are ready to enter into serious negotiations.

According to a UN envoy in Sudan, tension remains high amidst a shaky 72-hour ceasefire with armed clashes reported at some areas in Khartoum overnight.

UN envoy to Sudan Volker Perthes told a UN Security Council meeting in New York City on Tuesday that both sides in the conflict believe that they can secure a victory.

“There is yet no unequivocal sign that either is ready to seriously negotiate, suggesting that both think that securing a military victory over the other is possible,” Perthes said.

Residential areas in Khartoum have been turned into battlefields where gun and tank fire, air attacks and artillery shelling have killed at least 459 people, wounded more than 4,000, cut power and water and limited food distribution in a nation where a third of its 46 million people had already relied on food aid.