Photo/Illutration Naoyuki Kawahara, the head of the nonprofit organization Rocinantes, arrives at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport early on April 29. (Kazushige Kobayashi)

Forty-eight Japanese arrived in Japan early April 29 from strife-torn Sudan after evacuating to nearby Djibouti.

Foreign Ministry officials said 65 Japanese nationals had evacuated from Sudan as of April 28 and the 48 in Djibouti boarded a charter flight that departed around 6:30 p.m. Japan time.

Naoyuki Kawahara, 57, was among those who arrived Saturday morning at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

A medical doctor who heads the nonprofit organization Rocinantes, a Kita-Kyushu-based group providing medical support in Sudan, Kawahara told reporters, “I felt like crying when I saw Mount Fuji.” 

He added that he prayed for an early cease-fire out of concerns for the Sudanese people.

The latest safe arrivals brought an end to the Self-Defense Forces mission dispatched to Djibouti to evacuate those who wanted to leave Sudan. The SDF members will return to Japan once preparations are complete.

Several Japanese nationals opted to remain in Sudan despite fears the country is plunging into civil war.

According to the Japanese office of the international nongovernmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF/Doctors Without Borders), a man in his 60s who has been in Sudan since June 2022 to coordinate medical support activities had remained in Sudan but fled for Ethiopia on April 25 after fighting intensified.

The man contacted the Japanese office on April 26 to inform staff he was safe.

Other MSF members remain in Sudan, providing medical care at hospitals in seven Sudanese states as well as at refugee camps.

One hospital in North Darfur state was caring for 404 patients between April 15 and 26, but 54 died. Initially, the hospital only had 36 beds, but by April 27 a total of 108 were set up.

Even then, there were not enough to care for all the patients, which left some sharing beds and others being treated while lying on the floor.

MSF officials said that around 1,200 staff were working in Sudan before fighting between warring factions broke out.

An official with the Japanese office said the organization would continue to provide support there while endeavoring to secure the safety of local staff since the fighting only worsened the dire medical care situation in Sudan.

(This article was written by Taishi Sasayama and Honomi Homma.)

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