Jakarta. A team of 39 personnel will depart for Sudan on Tuesday to evacuate 291 Indonesian citizens in war-torn Sudan.

A Boeing 737-400 belonging to the Air Force will depart from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta with several stops in Mumbai, Muscat, and Jeddah, Indonesian Military Chief Admiral Yudo Margono told reporters on Monday.

Indonesian evacuees will first be flown to Jeddah before leaving for Jakarta.

"The flight from Jeddah to Jakarta will be informed later because this is an emergency operation to evacuate the 291 citizens," Yudo said.

The first batch of evacuation prioritizes women, children, the elderly, and ailing citizens, he said, adding that a medical team is also involved in the evacuation team.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said separately 538 Indonesian citizens were gathered at a shelter in Port Sudan on Monday morning before sailing to Jeddah for flights to Indonesia.

"Most of those Indonesian citizens are students, migrant workers, Indofood employees, and members of the Indonesian embassy and their families,” Retno said.

According to the Indonesian Embassy in Khartoum, there are 1,209 Indonesian citizens living in Sudan.

Retno said the evacuation cannot be conducted in a single mission altogether because of the fuel limitation policy for buses used in the evacuation process imposed by local authorities.

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