FILE PHOTO: The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Deng Dau Deng during the launch of Japanese-funded Water Treatment plant in Juba- Credit: Moses Awan/Eye Radio - March 16, 2023

The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said the government has no plans currently to evacuate South Sudanese citizens in Sudan because the population is too big.

Deng Dau Deng made the statement while meeting Nicholas Haysom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan.

He said that the government has adopted some measures to receive the returnees.

On the evacuation effort, the acting minister says the government has not set plans.

“We discussed some contingency plans that can be made on the people returning. On evacuation, as a country, we have not yet discussed the issue of evacuation because we have a very a large population of South Sudanese in Khartoum and across Sudan,” he said on the state-owned television SSBC on Friday evening.

However, he encourages South Sudanese citizens caught in the vicious Khartoum battle to stay in safer areas until the situation is calm.

“But we have talked to our embassy to be able to talk to our people to remain where there is the safety they should not risk their lives to cross.”

Influx of returnees

Dau stated that some South Sudanese are coming back to the country through the states boarding Sudan.

“Some of them are coming through the northern states of Upper Nile, Ruweng Administrative Area, Unity State some are from Abyei and then northern Bahr el Gazal and western Bahr al gazal.”

On Thursday during a Ramadam break-fast in Juba, President Salva Kiir reiterated his plans to travel to Khartoum with two other regional leaders when the warring parties silence the guns.

This comes after the IGAD Heads of State delegated him, along with Kenya’s President William Ruto, and Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh to travel to Khartoum to mediate dialogue among the Sudanese parties.

President Kiir was selected as the team leader of the delegation to Sudan.

Streets battles continued in Khartoum on Friday despite the army’s declaration of a three-day truce with the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to enable people to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

More than 400 people have been killed and thousands wounded since the fighting erupted last Saturday.