President Museveni has directed the External Security Organisation (ESO) boss Joseph Ocwet to pick up one of the Uganda Airlines planes and evacuate Ugandan citizens still stranded in Sudan.
According to a communication from the government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo, the plane will fly from Entebbe Airport and land at Bahirdar Airport in Northern Ethiopia which will then be the exit route from Khartoum, which still has its airspace closed.
Ocwet will be supported by President Museveni’s elite force commanded by the Special Forces Command (SFC) commando unit under Col Asaph Nyakikuru Mweteise.
At least 300 Ugandan nationals, including diplomats, business people, students and Hajj pilgrims that were en route to Saudi Arabia when the violence broke out last week are still stranded in Sudan.
On Sunday, Uganda’s envoy to Khartoum ambassador Rashid Ssemuddu said the embassy hired six long-haul buses to transport the evacuees across the Ethiopian border from where they will fly to Entebbe.
He said the travellers who were stuck at Sudan’s main airport in the capital have since been transferred to safe places until they can be evacuated.
Uganda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, John Mulimba, said the government is working with various groups including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to provide all needed support to their citizens, including assistance for possible evacuations.
