The bloody violence between the military led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who effectively took power in a coup in 2021, and the semi-military Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the command of its opponent and former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, entered its second week in Sudan. According to data shared by the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of fatalities has exceeded 420 and the number of wounded has reached 3,700.
Following the escalation, the Hungarian government started to evacuate Hungarian citizens from the affected zones. Four Hungarian citizens have already been evacuated, while the evacuation of six other Hungarian nationals is still ongoing, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Monday in Luxembourg.
The minister reported that four Hungarians are already safe in Djibouti, three of whom were evacuated as part of a cooperation with France, for which he thanked Paris. In addition, three Hungarians are currently in a safe place as part of a United Nations operation, and the evacuation of three more Hungarians is also underway.
‘My colleagues are waiting for them at designated border crossings with neighbouring countries of Sudan,’ he said, adding that he cannot provide more specific information for security reasons. Szijjártó said that five Hungarian citizens are still in the Sudanese capital, and despite the poor communication technological conditions, they are contacted from time to time, and the government has offered to them various options on how to leave the country.
‘It should be noted that the condition of every evacuation operation is that everyone who wants to participate must arrive at a designated meeting point or airport at their own risk and in an organised way,’ the minister stressed. ‘Obviously, considering the circumstances, this is already a risky undertaking in itself, and not everyone is willing to take this responsibility,’ he added. ‘If I have new information, or if more Hungarians arrive at the designated meeting points and my colleagues come into direct contact with them, I will of course immediately report on these developments,’ Péter Szijjártó concluded.
