Gov’t Sends Uganda Airlines Plane With SFC Commandos To Evacuate Ugandans Stuck In Sudan Amidst Escalating Tensions

President Museveni has directed the head External Security Organisation (ESO), Joseph Ocwet to use one of Uganda Airlines’ planes and evacuate Ugandan citizens still stranded in Sudan.

According to a communication from the government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo, the plane will fly from Entebbe Airport and land at Bahirdar Airport in Northern Ethiopia which will then be the exit route from Khartoum, which still has its airspace closed.

Ocwet will be supported by President Museveni’s elite force commanded by Special Forces Command (SFC) commando unit under Col Asaph Nyakikuru Mweteise.

“Ambassador Ocwet has been directed to go with Uganda Airlines and physically pick Ugandans from Ethiopia together with Col Asaph Nyakikuru Mweteise of SFC at Bahirdar Airport in Northern Ethiopia,” Opondo said.

“This matter is being followed keenly and supervised by President Kaguta Museveni. But has also delegated the Senior Adviser on Special Operations General Muhoozi Kainerugaba to supervise a special operation for the safe evacuation and bring back of the 208 Ugandans.”

At least 300 Ugandan nationals, including diplomats, business people, students, and Hajj pilgrims that were en route to Saudi Arabia when the violence broke out last week are still stranded in Sudan.

On Sunday, Uganda’s envoy to Khartoum ambassador Rashid Ssemuddu said the embassy hired six long-haul buses to transport the evacuees across the Ethiopian border from where they will fly to Entebbe.

“Regardless of the fighting going on in the middle of [the capital], we have been following up with the situation with all our citizens who are here. The Ugandans in Khartoum so far are safe,” Ssemuddu said.

He said the travelers who were stuck at Sudan’s main airport in the capital have since been transferred to safe places until they can be evacuated.

“We are in contact with them and also in contact with the airline which was supposed to take them to Jeddah,” said Ssemuddu. “They were moved to a safe place in one of the hotels in Khartoum, and the airline gave us assurances that they would cater for everything for the time they will be in the hotel as they are waiting for the situation to calm down and they open the airport.”

Uganda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, John Mulimba, said the government is working with various groups — including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) — to provide all needed support to their citizens, including assistance for possible evacuations.

“The government,” he said, “is working with other regional and international partners to monitor the situation and urges a return to constructive dialogue and recommit to the principles of the transition process as the only way to lead to national reconciliation and peace.”

Clashes between Sudan’s military and the country’s main paramilitary force that started on Saturday have reportedly killed around 200 people and wounded 1,800.

Sudan’s rival commanders agreed to a 24-hour cease-fire starting Tuesday evening, but Army Gen. Shams El Din Kabbashi, a member of Sudan’s ruling military council, said on al Arabiya TV it would not extend past the agreed 24 hours.