A C-130 aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force took off from Khartoum at noon on Thursday, as part of an operation to evacuate Greek citizens from Sudan.

The aircraft has already safely entered Egyptian airspace, carrying 39 people, 20 of whom are Greek citizens and their family members residing in Sudan.

The rest of those evacuated are citizens of other EU member-states as well as third countries. A Greek diplomatic official also participates in the mission. The arrival of the Hellenic Air Force aircraft in Athens is expected this evening.

With the completion of this operation, the number of evacuated compatriots and their family members reached 125 people.

A live broadcast of the evacuation and rescue operation was watched by the Deputy Minister of National Defence, Nikos Hardalias, and the Chief of the HNDGS, General Konstantinos Floros at the National Operations Center of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff (HNDGS).

With the arrival of the C-130, from a military view, the evacuation and rescue operation in Sudan has been completed, the HNDGS announced.

Also read: Sudan | New ceasefire effort – The “COSMOS” plan of HNDGS for the evacuation of the Greeks of Sudan

The head of the evacuation and rescue mission was the Deputy Minister of National Defence, Nikos Hardalias. The director of the Department of Sub-Saharan African Countries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Konstantinos Soulios, also participated in the mission along with the Deputy Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, Brigadier Charalambos Georgiou, as head of the Special Operations Department from the Special Warfare Command of the HNDGS.

Throughout the evacuation operations, the mission was in contact with the National Operations Center of the Greek Ministry of Defence and the Crisis Management Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The following operations were also conducted within the framework of the rescue and rescue mission for Greek and foreign citizens since the outbreak of the crisis in Sudan:

• On Sunday, April 23, two Air Force transport aircraft, a C-27 and a C-130, were dispatched from Elefsina Air Force Base to Aswan Airport, Egypt.
• On Monday, April 24, a C-27 took off from Aswan bound for Djibouti and evacuated the first 17 citizens (13 Greeks and 4 other spouses of Greek nationals), and returned to Elefsina on Tuesday, April 25.
• On Tuesday, April 25, another C-27 took off from Elefsina and landed in Aswan, evacuating 16 Greek citizens, one from Cyprus, 9 from Romania, and 8 from Finland from Djibouti and Aqaba, Jordan. On Wednesday, April 26, the aircraft with N. Hardalias and the rescued citizens returned to the Tanagra air base.
• On Wednesday, April 26, a C-27 aircraft took off from Elefsina and landed in Aswan from where it is expected to return to Greece.

Also read: Sudan | Another 17 Greeks have been evacuated