Sudan aflame: The first evacuees arrive in Greece, on Tuesday morning

A C-27 transport aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force carrying Greeks from Sudan is expected to land this Tuesday morning at the military airport of Elefsina.

So far, a total of 35 Greeks have been evacuated from the north African country due to clashes that began over a week ago between the army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary organization RSF of Mohamed Hamdan Daglo or simply Hemeti.

On Tuesday morning it was announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that seven more Greeks were rescued by a Dutch aircraft and flown to Aqaba, Jordan.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, expressed his warm thanks to his Dutch counterpart, Wopke Hoekstra, for his country’s assistance in efforts to free Greeks and their family members from Sudan.

The C-27 picked up the Greeks who will arrive in Greece today from Djibouti and, according to information, was expected to make a refueling stop in Aswan, Egypt, from where it took off, to then return the rescued persons to Greece.

Many countries are organizing special operations to free their citizens from the conflagration in Sudan, although the positive news is that a three-day cease-fire came into force with the mediation of the USA.

More than 400 civilians are dead and more than 3,500 thousand are injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Operation Kosmos will continue

The operation to rescue Greeks from Sudan, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will continue.

It is characteristic that after the return of Minister Nikos Dendias from Luxembourg where he participated in the Council of Foreign Affairs of the EU, a new meeting of the Crisis Management Unit was scheduled on the issue of operations to release the Greeks from the long-suffering African country.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs will inform the parliamentary parties about the situation in Sudan, in a meeting he will have with their representatives, this Tuesday at 12:00 noon at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Nikos Dendias gave an update on the EU’s reaction to the release of European citizens from Sudan when he arrived at the Council in Luxembourg. “Europe is judged by its ability to react to crises. And as Europe, I want to say that we have not received a very good mark in the crisis in Sudan”, he said characteristically.

However, the minister offered his thanks for the enormous efforts made by the EU High Representative and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Italy for the removal of Greek citizens from Khartoum.

The Greeks from Sudan were released piecemeal thanks to the “Kosmos” operation. The two injured Greeks were among the group of eight who were rescued on Sunday.

Two Air Force aircraft are involved in the operation. These had departed from Elefsina, carrying diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, specialized medical personnel and also the special operations department of the Armed Forces General Staff.

With them were two commando detachments, who had a close support role and took over the security of the aircraft. Medical personnel also went to Sudan as the rescued were receiving treatment.

The Hellenic Air Force’ s C-27

The twin-engine Alenia C-27J Spartan is a medium military transport aircraft, one of 8 in Hellenic Air Force fleet, the first of which was delivered in 2004.

They joined the 354th Tactical Transport Squadron “Pegasus” and are painted solid gray.

They have a crew of three, are equipped with a fully digital cockpit, with five color display screens (LCD), and AN/APN-241 radar.

They are powered by 2 Rolls Royce AE 2100D2 turbo-turbo engines, 4,640 HP each, have a length/wingspan of 22.70 meters/28.70 meters, a maximum take-off weight of 30,500 kg, a speed of 602 km/h and a range of 1,760 km fully loaded.

They can transport personnel, material (60 soldiers, 46 paratroopers and 36 stretchers with 6 medical attendants), and vehicles with a maximum weight of 11.5 tons in all weather conditions, day and night.

They are used to perform tactical and operational air transport as well as search and rescue missions, air applications and air medical transport.