Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos has contacted French and British counterparts Catherine Colonna and James Cleverly and Egypt’s Sameh Shoukry on getting Cypriots out of Sudan.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry said the contacts were held in the context of the ongoing mutual information and coordination with other countries, including EU partners, to manage the situation that has arisen.
The Ministry’s Crisis Management Department constantly coordinates with its embassy in Egypt, which is also accredited in Sudan.
Fighting in Sudan is being discussed during Monday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, where Kombos will raise the issue of safe evacuation of nationals as a matter of utmost urgency.
Cyprus is on standby to activate, if and when necessary, the ESTIA Special National Plan for the reception and repatriation of foreign citizens from the crisis area through the territory of the Republic.
Europe, China and Japan raced to extract their citizens from Khartoum, and thousands more people took advantage of an apparent lull in fighting between the army and a paramilitary force over the past two days to escape Sudan.
The sudden eruption of violence between the military and the well-armed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group on April 15 triggered a humanitarian crisis and has killed 427 people, UN agencies said.
Nations, including Gulf states and Russia, were trying to get citizens. Greece has also helped evacuate Cypriot nationals.
There was a growing exodus to Sudan’s neighbours, including 10,000 people who fled to South Sudan despite chronic instability.
Along with millions of Sudanese without access to basic services, foreign diplomats, aid workers, students, and their families found themselves in a war zone last week.
Internet connectivity was cut on Monday, website Netblocks reported.
Fighter jets have bombed the capital, the main airport has been at the centre of fighting and artillery barrages have made movement unsafe in and out of one of Africa’s largest cities.
Diplomats have been targeted in attacks, and at least five aid workers have been killed.
However, fighting calmed enough over the weekend for the United States to get embassy staff out by military helicopter, triggering a rush of evacuations by other countries.
France and Germany on Monday said they had evacuated around 700 people without giving a breakdown of their nationalities.
A German air force plane carrying evacuees landed in Berlin early on Monday.
Several countries sent military planes from Djibouti to fly people out from the capital, while other operations took people by convoy to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which is about 800 km by road from Khartoum.
