Sudan evacuation. Image credit Twitter page of Nick Sortor
CMEDIA: With fighting in Sudan entering a third week, Canada’s Defence Minister Anita Anand reportedly said that Canadians stranded in Sudan will have another chance to leave on Saturday aboard at least one evacuation flight.
Following the cancellation of two earlier airlifts to extract Canadians from the war zone. two Canadian evacuation flights made it safely out of Khartoum late Friday, reportedly said Global Affairs Canada and Anand.
In a tweet, Anand said the Canadian military will remain “ready to conduct flights for as long as conditions allow.”
One of Canada’s planned evacuation flights to Sudan ran early Friday into mechanical problems in the nearby country of Djibouti and had to be abandoned.
A second Canadian flight, involving a C-130J Hercules transport, was cancelled following a Turkish relief plane being fired on by one of the warring parties.
Canadians waiting at the airstrip on Friday reported saying they were left outside most of the time with little water or food, and almost no information.
Besides security concerns, the condition of the runway at the Sudanese military airport Anand said, was an increasing source of concern for Canada and its allies.
“The terrain at the airport is very rough and it requires a continual assessment by our officials, together with our allies, that planes can safely take off,” she said.
“The situation on the ground remains volatile, precarious and unpredictable,” Anand said Saturday. “The window for opportunity at the airfield is closing” and the Canadian government is looking at other options for transport by sea and land, she said.
A senior defence official in Ottawa said late Friday, the window for air evacuation out of Sudan is closing rapidly and options are being developed for Global Affairs to get Canadians out overland to the port of Sudan — where a Canadian warship, a supply vessel and allied ships are waiting.
However, this would involve a risky 800-kilometre journey during a ceasefire.
As of Friday, a total, 375 Canadians have left the country as the situation in Sudan continues to worsen.
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