Foreign embassies evacuated as Sudan exodus accelerates

The escalating Sudan crisis an has sparked dozens of ‘complex’ evacuation operations to rescue foreign citizens or embassy staff.

Evacuees from Sudan disembark from a Saudi naval ship in Jeddah on Saturday. Picture: Saudi Press Agency via AFP

The escalating crisis in Sudan has sparked several “complex” evacuation operations to rescue foreign citizens or embassy staff by road, air and sea.

With the main airport in the capital Khartoum under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is battling the army, the US and UK are among dozens of nations extracting their staff by any means necessary.

The US military evacuated American embassy staff from Khartoum with Chinook helicopters, President Joe Biden said on Sunday, as fighting between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group entered a second week following a brief lull.

The fighting in Sudan has left hundreds dead and thousands wounded, while survivors cope with shortages of electricity and food.

“Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract US government personnel from Khartoum,” Mr Biden said in a statement released late Saturday night, Washington time.

The British army evacuated UK embassy staff and their families in a “complex and rapid” operation, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a tweet.

And the first French flight out of the country removed round 100 people of multiple nationalities after a “complicated” rescue operation, a French foreign ministry official said on Sunday.

A second flight of another 100 people is expected to leave on Sunday evening, also heading to Djibouti, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile the European Union said Sunday there were “efforts to coordinate” evacuations. Seven EU members have missions in Sudan.

In Mr Biden’s statement, the US President expressed gratitude for the “unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety”, adding that Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia had helped in the operation.

The heavily armed Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group challenging the authority of the regular army tweeted hours earlier that it had “co-ordinated with the US Forces Mission consisting of 6 aircraft, for evacuating diplomats and their families on Sunday morning”.

Foreign countries have said they are preparing for the potential evacuation of thousands more of their nationals, even though Sudan’s main airport remains closed. More than 150 people from various nations had already reached the safety of Saudi Arabia a day earlier, in the first announced evacuation of civilians.

As the kingdom’s naval forces transported the civilians, including diplomats and international officials, across the Red Sea from Port Sudan to Jeddah, fighting resumed in Khartoum after a temporary truce saw gunfire momentarily die down on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Fitr. Eid is normally a major celebration for Sudanese marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This year it is marked by fear, grief and hunger.

A plume hangs over conflict-riven Khartoum. Picture: AFP

Earlier on Saturday, Sudan’s army said its chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had received calls from leaders of multiple countries to “facilitate and guarantee safety for evacuating citizens and diplomatic missions”. It noted the evacuations were expected to begin “in the coming hours”, adding that the US, Britain, France and China were planning to airlift their nationals out of Khartoum using military planes.

Lieutenant General Burhan told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV the army was in control of “all airports, except for Khartoum airport” and one in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

Urban warfare began on April 15 between forces loyal to Lieutenant General Burhan and those of his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. Lieutenant General Daglo commands the RSF, which emerged from the Janjaweed fighters unleashed in Darfur by former leader Omar al-Bashir, drawing accusations of war crimes.

On Saturday, heavy gunfire, loud explosions and fighter jets were heard in many parts of the capital, despite the army announcing an agreement to a three-day ceasefire a day earlier. Two 24-hour ceasefires announced last week were also ignored. The RSF added in its Sunday statement “we renew our commitment to a ceasefire during the declared truce, to open up humanitarian corridors and ensure the safety and wellbeing of the citizens”.

Lieutenant General Daglo said in a statement he had “discussed the current crisis” with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and was “focused on the humanitarian truce, safe passages, and protecting humanitarian workers”. Five humanitarian workers, including four from UN-linked agencies, have so far been killed.

In Khartoum, a city of five million people, the conflict has left terrified civilians sheltering inside their homes. Many have ventured out only to get urgent food supplies – stocks of which are dwindling – or to flee the city.

While the capital has seen some of the fiercest battles, they have occurred across the country.

Battles have raged in Darfur, where Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the city of El Fasher said its medics had been “overwhelmed” by the number of patients with gunshot wounds, many of them children.

More plans are being made to evacuate foreigners, with South Korea and Japan deploying forces to nearby countries, and the EU weighing a similar move. The World Health Organisation said more than 420 people had been killed and over 3700 wounded across Sudan, but the actual death toll is thought to be higher.

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