A group of 22 South Africans who were stuck on a cargo ship in an Egyptian port are expected to land in Cape Town today.
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This is according to humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers, which said that the group was stranded on their employer’s vessel after fleeing from conflict-ridden Sudan prior to receiving a release order from Egyptian authorities to return home.
‘Thanks to the commitment and dedication of our diplomatic staff at the SA Embassy in Cairo who negotiated with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and National Security Agency, and made the six-hour road trip to the port, the group were “released” at 6pm on Tuesday,’ said Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman.
‘They made their way to a local hotel, relieved that they had escaped the war via Port Sudan alive and unscathed.’
‘They were permitted to leave the cargo ship after four days and will depart for Cairo this afternoon (Wednesday) to take a flight in the early hours of tomorrow morning to Addis Ababa and onwards to Cape Town on Ethiopian Airlines.’
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‘They will land in Cape Town on 4 May at 1.45pm. We wish them a safe, successful, pleasant journey home on this last leg of their journey,’ he said.
This comes after Gift of the Givers received a call from the South Africans, who had been stranded since Saturday.
The group of South Africans arrived from Port Sudan, where they had been on contract since September 2022.
Their project was two weeks from completion but was interrupted by armed conflict between rival factions of the military government of Sudan, which broke out on 15 April.
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Picture: Gift of the Givers / Facebook