Dozens of stricken Thai nationals were evacuated in the early hours of Thursday morning following the explosion of civil war in Sudan.

Eighty-two Thai evacuees crossed the Red Sea on April 25 to take shelter in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after Sudanese soldiers clashed with paramilitary forces in an internal power struggle in the northeastern African country earlier this month.

Royal Thai Air Force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Prapas Sornjaidee said today that an Airbus A340-500 and two C-130 aircraft had arrived in Jeddah to take the refugees home to Thailand. However, four of them opted to stay behind with their relatives.

Prapas said: 'Many of the evacuees were exhausted from travelling, but they were heartened by the care shown by the Thai Embassy and Air Force.'

The Airbus is expected to leave Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport today and arrive in Thailand at 10 PM. The two other aircraft will remain to wait for more Thai nationals for repatriation.

The evacuues will undergo health checks before being transported to their hometowns.

The second batch aboard the military C-130 planes is scheduled to land in Thailand on Friday morning.

Violence erupted in Sudan in the middle of April as two factions of the military regime jostled for power following a failed transition to a civilian-led democracy.