South Sudan to evacuate almost 60 students in Ethiopia’s Amhara region amid rebel advance

JUBA – South Sudan government has announced that 59 South Sudanese students on government scholarship in Ethiopia’s Amhara region will be evacuated on Wednesday to Addis Ababa and see possibilities of flying them back to the country.

The move comes after Tigrayan forces on Sunday seized the strategic town of Dessie in Ethiopia’s Amhara region where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge from an escalation in the conflict.

Fighters with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had pushed Ethiopian government forces from Dessie and are advancing toward the town of Kombolcha.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Tuesday morning, the deputy minister of foreign affairs Deng Dau Deng said the South Sudanese students have gathered at Bahir Dar and Gondar universities waiting to be transported to the country’s capital Addis Ababa.

“The students will be relocated to Addis Ababa on Wednesday for their own safety especially those in areas of Amhara where fighting is taking place,” Deng told a Sudans Post reporter in Juba.

Deng said that the students will resume their studies once the situation deescalate in Ethiopia.

More than 500 South Sudanese students are pursuing various courses in the Ethiopian universities – some of whom are on government scholarships.