Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir (left) speaking to the press after the arrival of the Malaysian evacuees from Sudan at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. With him is Malaysian Ambassador to Sudan, Mohamad Razdan Jamil (right).
SEPANG: The 30 Malaysians faced a harrowing trip to escape conflict-torn Sudan, says Malaysia’s ambassador to Sudan.
Mohamad Razdan Jamil recounted the perilous journey from his official residence-turned shelter in Khartoum to Port Sudan, saying that it was a now-or-never decision.
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"It was important for us to find the route not being contested so we decided to take the long way to Port Sudan rather than the shorter one.
"Even though the shorter route was only around 850km, there were three areas along the way that were being contested.
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"To show you some illustrations of the difficulties faced during this 1,300km journey, we faced a checkpoint approximately every 50km to 80km.
"And every time we reach a checkpoint, we do not know who is in control.
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"The situation around Sudan, especially the 150km (checkpoint) was very tough.
"We didn’t know who was in front of us and we had to be vigilant," he said.
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He added that the group was lucky as all the checkpoints they passed were controlled by government forces and that the driver they used had good relations with them, leading to a smoother journey.
Earlier on Friday (April 28), 30 Malaysians who had to be evacuated from Sudan reached home safely.
Touching down at just before 3pm today, flight SV834 from Jeddah arrived safely at KLIA, completing the journey home that originally started on April 23 when the Malaysians there were evacuated out into safer lands.
In addition to the 30 Malaysians that landed, three other non-Malaysians were part of the group as well.
The group was welcomed by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.
"We are still following developments because if we follow the number of Malaysians in Sudan that registered with the embassy, then that’s the full group.
"If there are those that were unregistered, I urge family members here to come forward so that we can act.
"As far as we know, all are with us, except for two who are still there under the United Nations," Zambry said.
He added that due to the unforeseen situation, the government had to act as quickly as possible to safely evacuate all Malaysians.
"In Libya (in 2011), the fighting was outside the city area in the beginning, but what happened in Sudan is that it started inside the city.
"This caught everybody by surprise and we had to go for the fastest option," he said, adding that several strategies were created as part of their plans to evacuate.
He added that as of now, the embassy there was still closed.
