Another group of 14 trapped Indian evacuees took a flight from Jeddah to Mumbai. “A group of 14 Indian evacuees departs from Jeddah onboard a flight for Mumbai,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, the 22nd batch of stranded Indian evacuees took an IAF C-130J flight from war-torn Sudan to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah. 62 Indian citizens arrived in New Delhi earlier on Wednesday. According to a statement issued by South Sudan’s foreign ministry on Tuesday, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a seven-day ceasefire.
The warring groups agreed to a seven-day truce from May 4 to 11 over the phone with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit.
“The two principals, General Abdel Fatah Al Burhan, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council and Commander in Chief of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th. They also agreed to name their representatives to the talks,” the statement read.
During the phone call, South Sudan’s President emphasised the need of extending the truce and naming representatives for peace negotiations to be conducted at an agreed-upon location. SAF and RSF did not respond to the report through their official channels.
Previous ceasefires have failed to quell the violence between competing factions across the country. The Sudanese army commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, were unable to reach an agreement, and in the middle of April, there were violent clashes between the two sides, resulting in at least 528 deaths and large-scale refugee migration from the country, according to CNN.
The decision on Tuesday came as the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that more than 800,000 people may flee to neighbouring countries as ongoing violence impedes convoys attempting to evacuate people from Sudan’s major ports.
