Share this article

A total of 10 more Ugandans were received by Uganda’s ambassador to Sudan H.E Ambassador Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu and his deputy Dickson Ogwang at Entebbe airport on Thursday evening 4^th May 2023.

H.E Rashid Yahaya, who is an Ambassador of Uganda to Sudan said this at Entebbe International Airport as he received a group of 10 Ugandans who were repatriated from Sudan, where deadly fighting between two generals has continued for the last three weeks. Thousands of people, mostly foreigners, have left the country. More are still leaving.

Mr. Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu last evening said that the other 13 Ugandans are still in Sudan with many had earlier travelled to Sudan purposely to seek medical attention for heart-related complications.

The first group of Ugandans (211) to be evacuated from the unrest arrived on the morning of April 27, having left Sudan by bus into neighbouring Ethiopia, before flying back home on a Uganda Airlines plane.

They arrived aboard a Ugandan Airways flight, which landed at Entebbe at around 7:30pm from Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

A group of nine Ugandans are said to be in South Sudan’s capital Juba, from where they are expected to be collected by a Uganda Airlines plane today (Friday), said Mr. Ssemuddu.

These were also picked from northern Sudan by Kenyan authorities. Mr. Ssemuddu, who was accompanied by his deputy, Dickson Ogwang, said some of the Thursday returnees were to be taken to Mulago Hospital for medical attention due to their underlying health complications, before they can reunite with their respective families.

Mr. Ogwang said that “one Ugandan was shot in the leg, and he is among the 13 currently receiving medical attention in Sudan. He is “steadily recovering and we are in constant communication with him and his family”, added the deputy ambassador. Those who were not evacuated in the first shift cited several reasons, including frustration of leaving behind their jobs.

Meanwhile, among the latest group to return is Richard Mayinja, the official who had remained guarding Uganda’s embassy in Khartoum, after the first batch were evacuated. He spoke of his experience there. “For three days, we had no electricity and no water,” he said.

“After mobilising this [latest] group, I decided to tag along, hence I entrusted the full care of the embassy premises with Sudanese authorities.”

When the fighting broke out on April 15 between de facto ruler Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s men and paramilitary forces (RSF) led by his rival and ex-warlord Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, Uganda, like other countries, started planning an exit plan for its nationals caught up in the unrest.

Officials said 300 Ugandans were known to have been in Sudan at the time. For now, 13 are still there following the safe evacuation of scores of their compatriots.