Naoyuki Kawahara made a more than 800-kilometer dash along poor roads during a grueling government-coordinated evacuation from war-torn Sudan.

“When I almost let it get me down after hours behind the wheel, (our staff) got me coffee,” Kawahara, a doctor and director of the Rocinantes nonprofit organization, said in a video posted on social media after arriving in Djibouti on April 24. “It brought me back to life.”

Kawahara, 57, whose group worked in Sudan to provide basic medical care, drove from the capital of Khartoum to the northeastern city of Port Sudan where he met up with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

From there, a C-2 transport aircraft operated by the SDF spent roughly two hours to take 45 people, including Kawahara, to an SDF outpost in Djibouti on the Red Sea.

“We appreciate the assistance we got from many people,” said Kawahara, flanked by two Japanese staff members, as he cited the SDF, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Japanese Embassy in Khartoum.

He was particularly grateful to the United Nations, which provided support during his long-distance drive.

Fighting broke out in Khartoum on April 15 between the Sudanese army and the rival paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces and has since spread nationwide.

“We hope a cease-fire will be secured as soon as possible and peace will be restored,” Kawahara said. “We want to work with the Sudanese people again for the country’s reconstruction.”

A total of 51 Japanese nationals in Sudan and their seven family members with non-Japanese nationality safely evacuated from the country, the government said April 25.

Forty-one of those who arrived in Djibouti on the C-2 aircraft were Japanese nationals staying in Sudan. The other four were family members.

They sported smiles of relief when they were greeted by diplomats and SDF members upon arrival in Djibouti.

All they had were small suitcases and backpacks that they were able to carry by themselves.

There were 12 children, including a sleeping infant cradled by its mother.

OUTSIDE HELP

In Tokyo, government officials deeply acknowledged that coordination efforts with other nations, which were trying to evacuate their own citizens, as well as international organizations, proved key to the successful evacuation.

A senior Foreign Ministry official said the government had requested cooperation from virtually all the countries and international agencies involved.

For example, the 45 people who traveled from Khartoum to Port Sudan joined two fleets of vehicles, one led by the United Nations and the other by the United Arab Emirates and South Korea, which took separate routes to the same destination.

Some Japanese were taken in vehicles organized by South Korea, according to Japanese and South Korean government sources.

Japanese Embassy officials asked Japanese nationals staying in Sudan if they wanted to join the government-coordinated evacuation operations and informed them when and where they needed to gather if they wanted to take part.

But getting everybody to assemble in designated meeting places was anything but easy.

“Communications (with expatriates) were disrupted a number of times because cellphone radio waves were lost and batteries died,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

Some people managed to reach meeting points for evacuation operations under their own steam, but others were picked up at other venues by Japanese Embassy officials, sources said.

The C-2 and two other SDF aircraft had been on standby in Djibouti, where the SDF operates an outpost for international anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden.

Separately, four Japanese nationals and one family member evacuated to Djibouti and Ethiopia with the help of France and the International Red Cross.

In addition, six Japanese nationals and two family members left Sudan from an air force base in the suburb of Khartoum with French assistance.

Japan also received support from Germany, the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia, among other nations, the Foreign Ministry said.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi expressed the government’s appreciation at an April 25 news conference for the assistance provided by other countries and organizations.

(This article was compiled from reports by Eishiro Takeishi in Djibouti, Atsuko Tannai, Kazuki Uechi and Anri Takahashi.)