At least 300 Ugandans are currently trapped in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum following the ongoing civil war, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.
They include 120 working in Khartoum, 116 students in different institutions of learning, 19 who were trapped by the war en route to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, 14 are patients and health workers in hospitals and six others are on short visits.
John Mulimba, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs was on Tuesday providing a status update of Ugandans in Khartoum to Parliament during a plenary sitting. He said that the government continues to trace Ugandans still at large.
Mulimba revealed that the Government through the Ugandan Mission in Khartoum has approached the International Organization for Migration – IOM, to support the evacuation of Ugandans who may wish to return home.
According to Mulimba, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and under the auspices of the eight member states of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the African Union – AU, are in consultation to resolve the ongoing impasse.
So far, IGAD as a regional bloc has sent in three Presidents Dr. William Ruto from Kenya, South Sudan’s Salvar Kiir, and Ismaïl Omar Guelleh of Djibouti to Khartoum, but it is unclear if they can make the trip as no planes are flying in or out of the country.
Two army generals; Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are at the heart of the power struggle in the ongoing deadly civil war.
The international community that includes; the UK, the US, and the EU has all called for a ceasefire and talks to resolve the crisis that claimed at least 200 people.