Official: 148 Somalis evacuated from Sudan via Ethiopia

By OMAR FARUK
Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Scores of Somalis fleeing violence in Sudan arrived in their Horn of Africa nation on Sunday, an official said. Some 148 Somali nationals, mostly students, arrived by plane in the capital, Mogadishu, said Abdurahman Nur Mohamed Diinaari, a top official with the Somali foreign ministry. The Somalis had traveled by land from Sudan to Ethiopia and then onward by air to Somalia. Forty-five of those who arrived Sunday later were transported to Garowe, the administrative capital of the Somali state of Puntland, Diinaari said. Somalia itself has been plagued by violence for years amid a rebellion by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.