The Dutch were informed on Sunday morning that they had to prepare to be evacuated. They know where to come and what time to be there. Evacuation and ‘moving to the assembly point are not without risk’, underlines Foreign Affairs. The Dutch were asked to keep information about the evacuation secret, because otherwise the operation could be jeopardized or could be cancelled.
It is a “challenging and risky situation,” Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said on the WNL television program on Sunday. Together with the Americans, the British, the Germans and the French, among others, “we are doing everything possible” to “try to get our people out of there”. The two Dutch planes stationed in Jordan are “part of the operation”, said the minister.
152 Dutch
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacts with 152 Dutch people in Sudan, but assumes there are even more Dutch people in the country. Among them are six people who work at the Dutch embassy, Ollongren said.
“We deeply sympathize with the Dutch in Sudan and will continue our efforts to evacuate people where and when possible,” Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra tweeted.
Hundreds of dead
Fighting broke out on 15 April between the government army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Because of the violence, which cost the lives of hundreds of people, it was not possible to evacuate for days. The Sudanese military announced on Saturday that it would facilitate the evacuation of civilians and diplomats from the US, UK, France and China.
Dutch company Proximities evacuated 22 foreign employees of another Dutch company from Port Sudan, a city on Sudan’s east coast, on Saturday. France brought citizens and diplomats from Sudan on Sunday, including from other European countries. There are no Dutch diplomats among them, says a spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.