Uganda has expressed its gratitude to Türkiye for granting transit visas to its nationals evacuated from Iran amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The Ugandans, mainly students, were transported in busses to the Turkish city of Istanbul on Wednesday for an onward flight to Kampala, according to the Ugandan authorities. The evacuation exercise was coordinated by the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military.
“The students were organised and evacuated from Tehran in buses on a 24-hour journey to the Gurbulak border post on the Türkiye-Iran border. We thank the Turkish government for granting them transit visas. The students were later transported to Istanbul, another 18-hour bus trip,” Ugandan military spokesperson Chris Magezi said in a social media post.
The dozens of evacuees are expected to arrive in Kampala on Thursday. The evacuation by Uganda comes amid growing tensions across the Middle East sparked by last week’s joint strikes on Iran by the US and Israel, prompting retaliatory attacks from Tehran on US and Israeli interests in the region.
Other African countries
Other African countries are also scrambling to evacuate their nationals from the region and issuing travel advisories. Sierra Leone says it has successfully evacuated 24 of its nationals from Iran to neighbouring Armenia, including students and embassy officials, at the country’s mission in Tehran.
Kenya estimates that about 400,000 of its citizens live and work across the Middle East and Gulf states. Kenya’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Musalia Mudavadi, has advised citizens in the region to stay alert and “monitor official communication from host governments regarding travel and safety updates.”
Ghana has activated emergency protocols at diplomatic missions in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Israel in what officials describe as a large-scale consular emergency response.
Evacuations remain difficult. South Africa says all known citizens in the affected countries have been accounted for, but evacuations remain complicated as flights across the region have been suspended with airspaces closed.
There have also been concerns over the potential impact of the conflict on economies, which also affects African countries.
