Evacuation of foreign nationals from Sudan begins

GOOBJOOG NEWS | KHARTOUM: The United States Military has started evacuating its diplomats together with their families from Khartoum Sudan as fighting continues.

U.S officials in a statement to journalists said the operation which was “fast and clean” and that fewer than 100 people were evacuated early Sunday when three Chinook helicopters landed near the US Embassy to pick them.

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had also begun to evacuate its citizens and diplomatic staff from the country – even as reports emerged that the evacuation convoy was fired at after leaving the French Embassy forcing them to return back.

Both the warring sides, Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have blamed each other for the attacks which left one French national injured according to media sources.

However, the French government has not commented on the incident.

Saudi Arabia also announced that it had started evacuating its stranded citizens from Sudan.

“Several nationals of brotherly and friendly countries” were being evacuated along with the Saudi citizens. Kuwaiti citizens are among the dozens of people brought to safety but it is not clear which other nationals are involved,” The Saudi foreign ministry said.

Ready to help

Both the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have said they are ready to help in the evacuation of foreign nationals from the country.

On Saturday, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Buhran announced that his forces will provide the necessary assistance to facilitate the safe evacuation of foreign citizens from the country in response to “calls from a number of heads of states.”

“The evacuation of all missions whose countries made such a request is expected to begin within the coming hours, as the United States, the UK, France, and China will evacuate their diplomats and nationals by air by military transport aircrafts belonging to their respective armed forces from Khartoum and this is expected to begin immediately,” the SAF said in the statement, posted on its Facebook page.

The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday announced that 91 of its citizens had been evacuated, along with 66 nationals from 12 other countries which included Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Canada, and Burkina Faso.

Fighting erupted last week in Khartoum between the two opposing armies which resulted from a power struggle between Sudan’s regular army and the RSF – which has seen heavy bombardment in the capital city, with hundreds killed and thousands more injured.