More than thirty Spaniards evacuated from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, are now flying to Djibouti in a Spanish Armed Forces plane after an operation coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation and the Ministry of Defence. The heads of both ministries, José Manuel Albares and Margarita Robles, respectively, have been in continuous contact throughout the day to ensure the success of the operation.
The Spanish military plane took off from Khartoum shortly before 11 p.m. (Madrid time) with around a hundred passengers of eight nationalities (Portuguese, Italians, Poles, Irish, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Colombians and Argentines), along with the Spaniards and Sudanese.
In addition to those evacuated in today's operation, another group of Spaniards decided, voluntarily, to remain in Sudan or to leave the country by other means, and some others had already left the country before the operation was in place.
The whole transfer operation from the Spanish Embassy in Khartoum was carried out without any incident thanks to the security arrangements put in place to guarantee the integrity of the transfer for all members of the convoy.
The Spanish Armed Forces operation consisted of four Air and Space Army aircraft, which operated between Djibouti and Spain to transport all the military personnel and material involved, and was carried out from Khartoum airport. For this purpose, nearly 200 army and air force personnel were involved.
Likewise, the personnel of the Orion Detachment, which has become a forward base for the deployment of the evacuation operation of Spanish civilian personnel in Sudan after the outbreak of the armed conflict, have provided support from Djibouti.
-NON OFFICIAL TRANSLATION-