Australian officials are battling to help more than a hundred citizens left in war-torn Sudan who face significant challenges trying to leave the country.
Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts says the government is tracking 152 Australians still in Sudan and is working with partner countries that have officials on the ground.
“The situation that we confront in assisting those people is a challenging one,” he told ABC TV on Sunday.
“There’s not an Australian embassy in Sudan, communications infrastructure is patchy at best.”
Movement in Sudan is hampered by limited access to transport, while some of the Australians in the country might be reluctant to leave for family reasons.
Helping from a distance
Mr Watt said Australian consulate officials were able to provide help in Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and Egypt.
Some 237 Australians have already left the country and about 100 have arrived back in Australia.
On Saturday, the federal government committed $6 million in humanitarian assistance for those caught up in the conflict.
Some $1 million has been allocated to the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide immediate relief and a further $5 million will go to Australia’s international partners delivering humanitarian assistance.
Sudan’s health ministry reports more than 550 people have been killed and more than 4900 have been injured since fighting between the country’s army and a paramilitary group started on April 15.
-AAP
