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President Yoweri Museveni has tasked External Security Organization (ESO) Director Ambassador Joseph Ochwet to use Uganda Airlines Airbus to evacuate 208 Ugandans who were rescued from war-torn Sudan.

After the fighting broke out in Sudan’s capital Khartoum a few days ago, most Ugandans, who comprise of students, Muslims who were traveling to Mecca, and traders got caught up there.

In order to mobilize Ugandans, President Yoweri Museveni then gave Ambassador Ocwet the responsibility of working with the country’s Embassy in Khartoum. Unfortunately, at the time, Yahaya Ssemudu, the Ugandan Envoy, had left for Hijja in Mecca.

Ambassador Ocwet, who is currently in Uganda, prepared buses two days ago to move its inhabitants eastward, to the Ethiopian border.

The Executive Director of the Uganda Media Center, Ofwono Opondo, stated, “Our expectation is that they arrive this morning and they are processed through their usual means of immigration.”

Government had chartered the Uganda Airlines airbus to airlift them, however, this hasn’t been possible, because it was discovered late in the night the airport runway is too small for the Airbus. The use of a different airport in the north of Ethiopia is currently the subject of new negotiations, Opondo told journalists on Tuesday.

Uganda has tried to save its citizens who have cried out for assistance since the violence started. The decision to use buses, Yahaya Ssemudu, Uganda’s ambassador in Sudan said, was informed by the fact no embassy has gotten permission to use air transport because the airspace is still closed to passenger planes. It is in Ethiopia, according to Ssemudu, where alternative safer means of exit will be found, including flying them to Uganda.