SEPANG: The Malaysian contingent of evacuees from Sudan took a longer 1,500km route to safety because there were contested areas along a route that was shorter by half.
“We chose routes that would not put our convoy under any risk of attack because it is important to find routes that are not being contested between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF),” said Razdan Jamil, the Malaysian ambassador in Khartoum.
He said the fighting in Khartoum was intense, with mortar fire and air strikes around his apartment, located at the Petronas complex in the Sudanese capital. The complex has since been taken over by paramilitary forces using it as an observation point.
“We decided to take a very long route to Port Sudan rather than a shorter one of only 850km where there are contested areas,” he told reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport today on his return home from the conflict in Sudan.
Razdan was among 30 Malaysians who arrived here at about 2.54pm via a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Jeddah, where they had been taken from Port Sudan by the Saudi Arabian navy.
Recalling their journey to Port Sudan, Razdan said there were checkpoints controlled by the RSF stretching between 50km and 80km.
“Every time we reach the checkpoint, we do not know who is in control. But Alhamdulillah, it was controlled by government forces, and the driver who drove us has a good relationship with security personnel… and the journey was smoother,” he said.
He said they also could not travel after 4am in Sudan because of various threats such as potholes on the road and the risk of being ambushed.
“We could be ambushed because there are mountainsides along the routes and it is better to travel in the daytime,” he said.
More than 400 people were reported to have been killed and more than 3,500 others injured as a result of the armed conflict between the SAF and the paramilitary RSF which broke out on April 15. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.