- The US Military has successfully evacuated their embassy staff even as heavy fighting continue inside the capital Khartoum.
- Some Gulf citizens have been able to flee through the Port of Sudan
- Aid workers trapped in the war are appealing for safe evacuation given the wars end is nowhere to be seen
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The U.S. military evacuated American government personnel from Khartoum, President Joe Biden said on Saturday, adding that Washington is suspending operations at its embassy there as fighting between Sudan’s rival commanders continued.
“This tragic violence in Sudan has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians,” Biden said in a statement. “It’s unconscionable and it must stop.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “all U.S. personnel and their dependents” have been safely evacuated and that the U.S. will continue to assist Americans in Sudan in planning for their own safety.
The operation, which involved six aircraft, was carried out in coordination with paramilitary Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the RSF said.
U.S. aircraft entered and exited Sudan without any issue, a U.S. military official said. All U.S. government personnel were evacuated from the embassy, officials said.
Other foreign nationals began evacuating from a Red Sea port in Sudan on Saturday. Japan’s TBS news reported that the United Nations staff members including Japanese nationals and their families would be evacuated from Sudan as early as Sunday.
The bloody onslaught of urban warfare has trapped large numbers in the Sudanese capital, disabling the airport and rendering some roads impassable.
The U.N. and foreign states have urged rival military leaders to honour declared ceasefires that have mostly been ignored, and to open safe passage for fleeing civilians and the supply of badly needed aid.
Sudan’s sudden collapse into warfare dashed plans to restore civilian rule, brought an already impoverished country to the brink of humanitarian disaster and threatened a wider conflict that could draw in outside powers, four years after the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.
With the airport closed and skies unsafe, thousands of foreigners – including embassy staff, aid workers and students in Khartoum and elsewhere in Africa’s third largest country – have also been unable to get out.
Saudi Arabia has evacuated Gulf citizens from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 650 km (400 miles) from Khartoum. Jordan will use the same route for its nationals.
