CS Mutua: 4 Planes Used To Evacuate Over 100 Kenyans From Sudan
The students, he added, would be picked up from South Sudan and airlifted back home.
Marvin Chege 
Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary (CS) Alfred Mutua on Monday, April 24 announced that the government had strategically deployed four aircraft to facilitate rescue operations for Kenyans living in Sudan.
In a statement, the CS revealed that an aircraft belonging to the Kenya Air Force was ready to airlift 18 students who were previously stuck in the war-torn country but managed to safely evacuate Sudan by road.
The students, he added, would be picked up from South Sudan and airlifted back home.
“We have a Kenya Airforce aircraft ready for a group of 18 students who are currently travelling by road to the South Sudan border. They will be airlifted to Nairobi,” the CS announced.
A Kenya Air Force C-27J Spartan plane at Embakasi Garrison on February 14, 2020. /FACEBOOK.KDF
Mutua however noted that the evacuation was part of a three-tier exercise conducted by the Kenyan Government in one of its largest evacuation exercises in post-independent history.
The rescue efforts also saw the government collaborate with its diplomats in three nations to ensure over 100 Kenyan students trapped in war-torn Sudan were brought home safely.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked with its embassies in Juba, South Sudan and Addis Ababa to ensure the students safely passed through Ethiopia on their way to Kenya, an exercise that took a whole day whilst usually, a flight from Khartoum to Nairobi takes over three hours long.
This is because the students had to travel through Ethiopia in a 1,410-kilometre journey home since Khartoum Airport was extensively damaged, ruling out an airlift.
In addition, the government had to covertly facilitate their travel as they were to pass through Gondar City in Northern Ethiopia which has usually been hit by conflict.
“We have already facilitated 29 Kenyan students to cross the border to Ethiopia. They are on their way to Gondor where they will fly to Addis Ababa and then to Nairobi,” Mutua briefed Kenyans on the first evacuation exercise.
Mutua noted that once the two evacuation exercises are complete, the government will stage a larger evacuation exercise in coordination with the national airline, Kenya Airways, as he had promised on Sunday, April 16.
“A larger group of Kenyans are on a well-planned program of travel and we will have two aircraft ferry them from Port Sudan to Jeddah and, thereafter, travel to Nairobi by Kenya Airways. We estimate to ferry 300-400 Kenyans this way, if not more,” Mutua added on the rescue plan.
CS Mutua went on to appreciate five countries, including Kenya, for facilitating the safe evacuation of her citizens from Sudan through a safe passage through their airspaces.
“I wish to thank South Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia for granting permission for Kenyan planes meant to evacuate stranded Kenyans in Sudan, to overfly their airspace.
"I also, in particular, thank the Governments of South Sudan and Ethiopia for heeding our request and allowing Kenyans to cross their borders and make it to safety,” added the CS.
Aerial view of Khartoum Airport destroyed during unrest in Sudan on April 15, 2023. /FINANCIAL TIMES
