The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) has set up a help centre for 210 Thai students in Sudan amid ongoing fighting in its capital Khartoum.
The help centre is located at the SBPAC headquarters in Yala. The students in Sudan and their parents can contact the centre for help, or call the 1880 SBPAC hotline.
Fighting in Sudan erupted on April 15 between forces allied with two generals -- army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) -- who jointly seized power in a 2021 coup.
Chanathan Saengphum, SBPAC's deputy secretary-general, said that the help centre would facilitate the needs of the students as well as keep their families in Thailand updated on the situation.
Mr Chanathan added that the SBPAC is working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and related agencies to keep in contact and monitor the needs of the students.
Reports said that most Thais in Sudan are Thai-Muslim students from the Deep South who are studying at the International University of Africa in Khartoum.
Meanwhile, Kanchana Patarachoke, MFA spokesperson, said the ministry had approved a budget for the Royal Thai Embassy in Cairo to give to the Honorary Consul in Khartoum to buy food and living necessities for Thais in Sudan.
On a possible evacuation: "We have been looking at evacuation plans via land or air. However, we need to look at the situation," she said.
"Sudanese airspace and the main airport are also closed, and the land route is still unsafe, so we do have to look at the situation," she added.
Meanwhile, Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin said that it is believed that there are six Thai nationals working in Sudan.
Three are crane operators, plus a machine operator, a maintenance technician and an electrical technician.
