Mortal remains of Indian national killed in Sudan to be brought to Kerala today

Thiruvananthapuram: The body of Kannur native Albert Augustine, who was killed in the Sudan conflict, will be brought to Kerala today. The embassy officials informed the relatives that they are trying to bring the body to Kochi by air in the evening. The body is currently kept in Port Sudan.

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Albert who was working in Sudan died by stray bullet injury on a day that witnessed violent clashes between the country's army and paramilitaries on April 15.

His wife and daughter were in the flat at that time. Both of them sought refuge in the apartment's basement as the conflict grew more intense and it became impossible to remove the dead body from the scene. The body was later transported to the hospital on the third day with assistance from the embassy.

According to reports, the last evacuation flight from Sudan will be conducted on Thursday. As far as 99 percent of Indians have been evacuated while reportedly a few Christian nuns are stuck in Sudan's Khartoum. The nuns are unable to come out of Khartoum to reach Port Sudan which is around 900 kilometres.

A Thrissur native, Ramesh, who managed to escape from Sudan shared the ordeal with Asianet News. He said, "Khartoum is burning and the situation is terrible in Sudan. I returned home a couple of weeks back. 99 percent of Indians have been evacuated from Sudan except for a few Christian nuns. The Indian Embassy is operating from Port Sudan inside an Indian school."

Ramesh also continued saying that he is worried about the embassy staff as they have very little food supply as Port Sudan relies on supplies from Khartoum. 

"It is important to take care of the mental well-being of the embassy staff too they are just another human being like the 4,000 who were evacuated, with wife, children, parents etc. I feel they should be moved to Jeddah at least. Almost all embassies have sent their staff back home and they are operating from their country," he said.

When asked about how he was evacuated along with other Indians, he said, "We took a bus from Khartoum to Port Sudan, from there an airforce aircraft to Jeddah, Jeddah to Bangalore and then Bangalore to Calicut, taking totally 5 days to native land."

After weeks of escalating tensions over the intended merger of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) into the regular army, military head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, violence broke out in Sudan in April.

Explosions and gunfire rang out on the deserted streets of Khartoum, according to witnesses, after the paramilitaries said they were in control of the presidential place, Khartoum airport and other vital facilities.