On Friday (28/4), 26 out of 56 Acehnese citizens who were evacuated from Sudan have arrived in Jakarta. They were evacuated due to the ongoing civil war in the country.
Most of the evacuees, 26 Acehnese citizens, are students who flew from Jeddah in the first batch. There were also 360 other Indonesian citizens in the same batch, while the rest were divided into the second and third batches.
"The data for the first batch of Acehnese citizens who were evacuated shows that there were 9 adult males, 10 adult females, 1 child, and 6 toddlers," said Akkar Arafat, the Head of Aceh Government Liaison Agency (BPPA), on Saturday (29/4).
Currently, dozens of Acehnese citizens are being accommodated at the Haji Pondok Gede Dormitory in East Jakarta before being sent back to Aceh. Akkar Arafat said that plane tickets for Jakarta-Aceh will be arranged by the Aceh Social Service Agency.
Meanwhile, Ribhan Akbar, one of the Acehnese students studying in Sudan, expressed his gratitude for being evacuated to the homeland with the assistance of the Saudi Arabian Government. "When we arrived at the port in Jeddah after boarding a cargo ship, we were also welcomed by the Indonesian Embassy staff there," he said.
"We are all relieved to have arrived here as the concerns we felt during the outbreak of war have now disappeared," added Ribhan.