Returnees fleeing fighting in Sudan board a cargo plane Paloch County on Saturday. | Photo: Sarah Michael.

The government says it has evacuated 6,000 returnees from Paloch Airport in Melut County to Juba and Wau in the last week.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Albino Atak said around 50 thousand people including refugees have arrived in the country through 12 entry points from Maban to Raja.

Atak says 6,000 civilians were evacuated from the oilfield town of Upper Nile State through 15 air trips to the capital.

“We have evacuated from Paloch since the first day of May up to now, about 6 thousand people mainly from Paloch and these 6 thousand people,” he told reporters in Juba.

“We evacuated them through 15 trips from day 1 of May up to today. The 15 trips that we actually did, 14 are coming to Juba carrying five thousand six hundred people while one trip went to Wau yesterday because our plan is to ask people where are they going and then we take them.”

Regarding the situation of the returnees after their evacuation, the minister says the government is coordinating with humanitarian partners to provide assistance to them.

He also said the government and UN agencies have set up reception points at the 2,000-kilometer long border.

“We are coordinating with our partners on the ground. They are providing humanitarian assistance to our people. We are setting up temporarily reception centers, because when you receive people, you register them and know where they are going and this takes sometimes.”

“So they always get some shelters and those who are coming sick they are those who will take care of them in these twelve reception centers.”

Fighting in Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces now enters the fourth week despite the declaration of ceasefires and the political engagement in Saudi Arabia.

Hundreds of people have been killed, thousands wounded and hundreds of thousands fled the country since the fighting erupted on April 15.