There are only 111 (WNI) left (who had not been evacuated). Hopefully, the situation is safe today (on Friday). Thus, they can be evacuated too.
Tangerang, Banten (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) is scheduled to transport the last evacuated group of Indonesian citizens (WNI) comprising 111 people from Port Sudan, Sudan, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday.

"The TNI AU’s (Indonesian Air Force’s) aircraft that I deployed prior, a Boeing 737 (plane), had carried out two evacuation sorties (flight missions), (transporting) 100 people in each sortie,” TNI Commander Admiral Yudo Margono stated at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport here on Friday.

“There are only 111 (WNI) left (who had not been evacuated). Hopefully, the situation is safe today (on Friday). Thus, they can be evacuated too," he remarked.

The last evacuated group of WNI is planned to return from Jeddah to Indonesia on Sunday (April 30, 2023) aboard TNI AU’s aircraft.

The TNI commander expects that the evacuation will run smoothly, and all WNI can return to Indonesia safely.

Earlier, he noted that the evacuation of WNI was conducted through Port Sudan, as it was faster to travel from the port city to Jeddah than from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

It only takes 45 minutes to fly from Port Sudan to Jeddah, while it takes an hour and a half to fly from Khartoum.

Meanwhile, on the same occasion, here, on Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi stated that the evacuation and repatriation of WNI had to be conducted in a relay and in stages since the situation in Sudan was dynamic.

"The evacuation process used a relay evacuation scheme, starting with the evacuation by land from Khartoum to Port Sudan and by sea as well as by air from Port Sudan to Jeddah, then (the WNI) left for Indonesia in stages," she remarked.

So far, 897 WNI had been evacuated to Jeddah. Some 385 of them had arrived in Indonesia on Friday at 5:46 a.m. Western Indonesia Standard Time (WIB).

The first evacuated group of WNI comprised 248 women and 137 men, including 43 children.

The second group will return from Jeddah to Indonesia on Saturday (April 29, 2023) and is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia on Sunday.

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Translator: Genta M, Cindy F, Uyu L
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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