Americans evacuated from Sudan embassy as airport closes and roads are blocked off amid fighting

The country’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said early Sunday that the US military has evacuated US diplomats and their families from Sudan, as fighting between rival leaders that has claimed hundreds of civilian lives continues.

It added that the operation, which included six aircraft, was carried out in coordination with the Rapid Support Forces.

In a separate context, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters that the US military had succeeded in evacuating the US embassy personnel. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other foreign nationals began evacuating from a Red Sea port in Sudan on Saturday.

“Today, at the direction of the President, the US military conducted a successful operation to safely evacuate US government personnel from Sudan,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

“This work, led by US Africa Command and carried out in close coordination with the US State Department, demonstrates the Department of Defense’s support for our country’s diplomatic staff,” he added.

I am proud of the outstanding service personnel who have implemented and supported this process with extreme precision and professionalism. We also thank our allies and partners, including Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, who played a critical role in the success of this operation.

The bloody onslaught of urban warfare has trapped large numbers in the Sudanese capital, crippling the airport and making some roads impassable.

The United Nations and foreign countries have urged the rival military leaders to respect a declared cease-fire that has been mostly ignored, to open safe passage for fleeing civilians and to supply much-needed aid.

With the airport closed and the skies unsafe, thousands of foreigners – including embassy staff, aid workers and students in Khartoum and elsewhere in Africa’s third-largest country – have not been able to get out.

Saudi Arabia evacuated Gulf nationals from the Red Sea port of Port Sudan, 400 miles from Khartoum. Jordan will use the same path for its citizens.

It is expected that Western countries will send planes to their citizens from Djibouti, although the Sudanese army has said that the airports in Khartoum and Nyala, the largest city in Darfur, are a problem, and it is not clear when this will be possible.

A foreign diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some diplomatic staff in Khartoum hoped to be evacuated by air from Port Sudan in the next two days. The US Embassy warned the Americans that it could not assist the convoys from Khartoum to Port Sudan and that travel would be at personal risk.

The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the rival Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, have so far failed to adhere to the ceasefire agreed upon almost daily since the outbreak of hostilities on April 15.

Saturday’s fighting broke what was supposed to be a three-day truce from Friday to allow citizens to reach safety and visit family during the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Both sides accused the other of not respecting the truce.

“I have no problem with the ceasefire,” Hemedti told Al Arabiya late on Saturday. They (the army) did not respect them. If they respect it, so do we.

Any slowdown in the fighting could precipitate a rush for many desperate Khartoum residents to flee after days trapped in bombed-out homes or neighbourhoods, with fighters roaming the streets.

Residents of Khartoum and the neighboring cities of Omdurman and Bahri reported air strikes near the state broadcaster and battles in several areas, including near the army headquarters.

A resident of al-Bahri said that there had been no water or electricity for a week and frequent airstrikes. “We are waiting for the big battle. We have begun,” she said in a message later.

Another citizen, Muhammad Siddiq, from the Shambat al-Bahri area, said, “We went through hours of terror today, when there were clashes and shootings between the army and the Rapid Support Forces inside the neighborhood, and bullets were everywhere.”

Television footage showed a huge cloud of black smoke rising from Khartoum airport.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) appealed for safe passage. “We need ports of entry where we can bring in trauma staff and medical supplies,” said Abdullah Hussein, MSF’s director of operations in Sudan.

The Sudanese Doctors Syndicate said more than two-thirds of hospitals in conflict zones are out of service, with 32 soldiers forcibly evacuated or caught in the crossfire.

Outside Khartoum, the worst violence was reported from Darfur, a western region that has suffered from escalating conflict since 2003, killing 300,000 people and displacing 2.7 million.

A United Nations update on Saturday said that at least 10 World Food Program vehicles and six other food trucks were seized by thieves after storming the agency’s offices and warehouses in Nyala, South Darfur.

Sudan’s sudden collapse into war has thwarted plans to restore civilian rule, put an already impoverished country on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, and threatened a broader conflict that could draw in outside powers, four years after the overthrow of former President Omar al-Bashir. popular uprising.

There has been no sign yet that either side can win a quick victory or is willing to talk. The military has an air force but the RSF is widely deployed in urban areas.

“We all have to sit down as Sudanese and find the right way out to restore hope and life,” Burhan said on Saturday, his most conciliatory comments since the fighting began.

Earlier in the clashes, he declared the RSF a rebel force, ordered its dissolution, and said that a military solution was the only option. On Saturday, Hemedti said he could not negotiate with Burhan.

Since the overthrow of al-Bashir and after the 2021 coup, al-Burhan and Hemedti have held senior positions in the ruling council that was supposed to be handed over to civilian rule and the RSF integrated into the army.

The World Health Organization reported on Friday that 413 people have been killed and 3,551 wounded since the fighting broke out. The death toll includes at least five aid workers in a country dependent on food aid.