The Thai government started to evacuate 150 Thais from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum this morning, heading for the coastal town of Port Sudan where they will board a chartered ship or naval vessel of a foreign country for onward travel to Saudi Arabia.

According to informed government sources, the 850km overland journey from Khartoum to Port Sudan, located on the Red Sea, will take 15-20 hours. The journey is, however, hazardous. At least two evacuation convoys, including one for French citizens, have been attacked by unknown armed forces, during which one died and another was injured.

An Airbus A340 and a Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) C-130 transport plane were scheduled to leave Bangkok last night or this morning (Tuesday) for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, to collect Thai evacuees and return them to Thailand, said the sources.

The sources said that, if the airport in Port Sudan is safe enough, the RTAF will fly its C-130 transport plane from Jeddah to pick up Thai people from Port Sudan.

The evacuation plan, formulated by the Thai Foreign Ministry and the RTAF was approved by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. 212 Thais have registered to be flown back to Thailand, but only 150 of them have expressed their readiness to be evacuated by bus to Port Sudan.

One of the evacuees, Abdul-azi Jeh Duerae, a former member of the Thai Students Association in Sudan, told Thai PBS that they were about to be evacuated to Port Sudan by bus, adding that Internet is not working.

According to NetBlock, only 2% of the Internet remains functioning in the capital, as the Sudanese government accuses rebel forces of attacking communication systems in Khartoum.

Citizens of several nations have been evacuated from Sudan to Egypt, where about five million Sudanese are also taking refuge.

About 100 European Union nationals are reported to have left Khartoum last night by C-130 transport plane, arranged by the Italian air force, which flew them to Italy’s airbase in Djibouti.

It is reported that Italian special forces were dispatched to Khartoum to visit every Italian’s house and take them to the airport to fly out of the Sudanese capital.