The first group of Thai evacuees from Sudan, 78 people, will arrive in Bangkok at 10pm on Thursday, according to the air force.

AVM Prapas Sonjaidee, spokesman for the air force, said an Airbus A340-500 plane and two air force C-130s had arrived in Jeddah to bring Thai evacuees from Sudan back to their homeland.

The first group of 82 evacuees have already crossed the Red Sea to Jeddah and 78 of them would board the Airbus A340-500 plane back to Thailand. The four others would stay with their relatives in Saudi Arabia, he said.

Many of them were tired from travelling travel but everyone was in good spirits, AVM Prapas said.

The Airbus aircraft would leave Jeddah at 2pm Thailand time and arrive at Wing 6 in Bangkok's Don Muang district at about 10pm, the spokesman said.

The two military aircraft would wait for other Thai evacuees in Jeddah, he said.

Atthapol Sangkavasee, permanent secretary for education, said there were about 220 Thai people in Sudan and all of them were evacuated. Two more evacuation flights would leave Jeddah for Thailand on Friday morning.

Of the evacuees, about 150 were students and about 100 of the students were southerners, he said.

The Education Ministry would arrange for the students to continue their studies in the country if they wished to do so, Mr Atthapol said.

Most of the students studied medicine, Islamic law and religion in Sudan, he said.