It was hugs and cheers on Thursday night as Ugandans, who had been stranded in Sudan after outbreak of clashes between rival military factions, finally returned home.
At 2:30am, the group of 211 working and living in Sudan and in the company of the External Security Organisation Director General, Amb Joseph Ocwet arrived at Entebbe International Airport aboard a Uganda Airlines Airbus.
The group including diplomats, students, and business expatriates who arrived from Bahir Dar Airport in Northern Ethiopia where they had been picked by the Uganda Airlines were received by the Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Operations Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba who had been designated by President Museveni to take charge of the rescue operation.
Whereas an estimated 300 Ugandans are said to be stranded in Sudan following the outbreak of the fighting between rival military factions, Uganda’s Ambassador to Khartoum, Dr Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu said last night that a comprehensive assessment of the country’s citizens still trapped in Sudan will be made after the first evacuation to see who else needs assistance.
The evacuation of 211 Ugandans followed President Museveni’s directive to Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba to coordinate the mission and to this, the president also directed that a Uganda Airlines Airbus be dispatched to help pick the stranded Ugandans.
To this, the ESO Director General, Amb. Joseph Ocwet together with Special Forces Command’s Col Asaph Mweteise led the delegation to Bahirdar Airport in Northern Ethiopia.
Some of the evacuated Ugandans had been stranded in hotels in Khartoum and had started making distress calls to family members back home following the outbreak of the fighting.
Fighting broke out in Khartoum two weeks ago when forces headed by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and loyalists of Gen Mohamed Hamden Hemedti Dagalo under the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fell out.
It is reported that the fall out between the two stemmed from Gen Burhan’s move to integrate the RSF into mainstream Sudanese army, a move Gen Dagalo and his loyalists feared would weaken them militarily and politically.
Uganda now joins several other countries that have in the past evacuated their citizens who had been stranded in Khartoum.