Cape Town - The remaining South Africans who were stuck in Sudan during the deadly power struggle of the past almost three weeks are expected to land at Cape Town International Airport this afternoon.
The group of 22 nationals had chosen to evacuate Sudan with the help of their employer, but ran into difficulties and were stranded on a cargo ship in Egypt.
The group fled Sudan via a cargo ship to Egypt when the violence had broken out, but were left stranded at Safaga Port since April 29 due to clearance issues with Egyptian authorities.
They had now finally been permitted to leave their ship and make their way home to Cape Town.
The group will be landing at Cape Town International Airport this afternoon.
Clayson Monyela, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation’s head of public diplomacy, yesterday confirmed that all 22 South African nationals who were unable to disembark from their boats in Egypt have now been cleared.
“We sent officials from the South African Embassy in Cairo to go and sign them off and get them cleared. This has now been successfully done. They are off the boats and will be headed to Cairo where they will catch the flight back to South Africa.
“We are grateful for the support and understanding of everyone to allow us to make this decisive intervention and get our people cleared so they can come home safely,” Monyela said.
Monyela said that this group had initially been getting assistance from their employer to evacuate the war-torn country. Their plans and travel arrangements did not involve the government and as such they were not part of the previous group of South African evacuations led by the embassy.
Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers – who was pivotal in getting the South Africans home – said: “Thanks to the commitment and dedication of our diplomatic staff at the South African Embassy in Cairo, who negotiated with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and National Security Agency and made the six-hour road trip to the port, the group were ‘released’ at 6pm on Tuesday.”
The group then made their way to a local hotel, relieved to have escaped the war via Port Sudan alive and unscathed, and to finally leave their cargo ship after four days.
Sooliman said that the group departed Cairo on Wednesday afternoon and would be taking a flight in the early hours of this morning to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then continuing onwards to Cape Town on Ethiopian Airlines.
