Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman confirms that South African nationals stuck in Egypt are set to return home. Picture: Reuters
Cape Town - Twenty-two South Africans who were stuck on a cargo ship in Safaga Port in Egypt are expected to land in Cape Town on Thursday.
Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers said the group of 22 South Africans who were stranded on their employer’s boat since April 29 after fleeing from conflict-ridden Sudan finally received a release order from Egyptian authorities to return home.
Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said: “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 (Tuesday).
“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 to take a flight in the early hours of tomorrow morning to Addis Ababa and onwards to Cape Town on Ethiopian Airlines.
“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.
Gift of the Givers had received a call from the South Africans who had been stranded since Saturday.
They had arrived from Port Sudan, where they were on contract since September 2022. The project required two more weeks until completion but was halted after armed conflict between rival factions of the military government of Sudan broke out on April 15.
Cape Times
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