The ambassador of Spain in Sudan, Isidro González Afonso, a native of Santa Úrsula, in the tenerife islandwas congratulated yesterday by King Felipe VI via mobile that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, gave him when he went to receive the plane in which the Canarian diplomat arrived, along with 72 people evacuated from the country, including 34 Spaniards, in Torrejón de Ardoz ( Madrid).
After nine tense days, with almost no sleep due to the fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Isidro González returned to Spain practically with hand luggage, just like everyone else.
In his little suitcase, yes, he put the shirt of the Sports Club Tenerifetell those close to the ambassador. At the embassy in Khartoum, he wrapped up in the basements the people who needed to leave the country, they explain. Along with thirty Spaniards, a total of eleven nationalities departed, thanks to an operation in which nearly 200 soldiers from the Land and Air Forces participated.
The 52-year-old diplomat from the Canary Islands and father of three children whom he was going to see yesterday in Madrid, has a degree in Law, Political Science and Sociology. He entered the Diplomatic Career in 2002 and has been assigned to the Permanent Representation of Spain before the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Vienna, at the Spanish embassy in the Republic of Cyprus, at the Moroccoand in the General Consulate of Spain in Jerusalem.
The Canarian ambassador has received messages of gratitude from the people he helped to leave Khartoum, explain people close to him. They were flying all night from Djibouti in a military plane and the entire evacuation process occurred with the utmost speed, they celebrate.
