Rwandans in South Sudan to be evacuated

The government is the process of identifying Rwandans living in South Sudan for possible evacuation, following insecurity accruing from clashes in the world’s youngest nation for the past week.Hundreds have since last week been killed in the fighting between factions within the armed forces, with one group allied to President Salva Kiir, while the other is said to be loyal to former vice president Riek Machar.The factions are said to be bent on ethnic lines between the Dinka, the largest ethnic group, and the Nuer, the second largest to which Machar belongs.Speaking to The New Times yesterday, the Director General of the Diaspora Directorate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Parfait Gahamanyi, said government is currently working out ways of evacuating Rwandans from South Sudan although the process may take some days.“First, we need to identify all Rwandans and their locations, then we need to draw a final list of those willing to return, put them in one place and then evacuate them. We are hoping to have the exact figures and location of all Rwandans by tomorrow (today),” said Gahamanyi.Currently, Rwandans in South Sudan are estimated to be 500 but government will evacuate those willing to return since most are there on personal businesses.This number is exclusive of Rwandan peacekeepers, who are part of the UN Mission in South Sudan.Rwanda maintains more than 850 peacekeepers in the country.Clashes spreadThe clashes between government forces and the rebels spread to UN bases on Friday, leaving three Indian peacekeepers and civilians dead, while many others were injured. No reports on Rwandans killed or injured in the violence.Uganda and Kenya are already evacuating their citizens according to media reports.Kenya was the first to send in shuttles but over the weekend, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered his army to enter South Sudan and evacuate trapped Kenyans after two of them were shot dead and six others injured in the deepening crisis.So far, one Ugandan has been reported dead and Uganda’s Special Forces also flew into South Sudan in a military C-130 transport plane and helped secure Juba International Airport to facilitate the evacuation its citizens and of foreign nationals.United Nations staff said hundreds of people have been killed across the country. Reports also indicate that about 40,000 civilians are being sheltered at UN bases.The rivalries in the country that less than three years ago voted in a referendum to secede from Sudan is reported to have escalated in July, this year, when President Kiir dismissed the entire cabinet, including his deputy Machar.The African Union called on Saturday for a Christmas ceasefire, and its chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma described the killings of civilians and UN peacekeepers as a war crime.

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Rwandans in South Sudan to be evacuated