In addition to France, several European countries began to evacuate, on Sunday April 23, their nationals from Sudan, a country plagued for more than a week by violent fighting between the regular army and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR).
“The first Airbus A400M is on its way to Jordan with its 101 evacuees,” the German military tweeted Sunday evening, adding that two other planes had been dispatched to Sudan to help with the evacuations.
“As far as possible, we will also take nationals from the EU and other countries,” the German defense and foreign ministries said. On Wednesday, Berlin had abandoned a first evacuation attempt. Three military planes, which could have carried 150 people, had headed for the country but had to turn back, according to Der Spiegel.
The Spanish government also explained that it had evacuated around a hundred people on Sunday by military plane, with around thirty Spaniards and some 70 nationals of other countries on board.
Italy evacuated all nationals who requested it
“All of our fellow citizens who had asked to leave have been evacuated,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement on Sunday evening. “With them are also foreign citizens,” she said.
Earlier in the day, his foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, had spoken of the evacuation by the Italian army “of around 200 people, including Swiss nationals and members of the apostolic nunciature”, the embassy of Holy See in Sudan. In a tweet, Mr. Tajani clarified that the evacuees were “flying to Djibouti”.
Pope Francis called for “dialogue” in the face of the “serious” situation in the country, where, since April 15, the two generals in power since their 2021 putsch have embarked on a merciless war.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra announced the evacuation of two groups of Dutch people: the first on board a French plane and the other left Khartoum by road in a United Nations convoy. In addition, Sweden sent about 150 soldiers to evacuate its diplomats and nationals.
Other countries have expressed the same intention. Ankara will thus “ensure the return” of its approximately 600 nationals, as well as “nationals of third countries who have requested assistance”, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday. An operation scheduled for Sunday in northern Khartoum has been postponed “until further notice”. In question: an explosion that occurred in the morning near a mosque designated as the place of assembly, announced on Twitter the Turkish embassy in Khartoum.
Canada, for its part, announced on Sunday that it was temporarily suspending its diplomatic operations in Sudan, specifying that its personnel would work from a “safe location outside the country”, according to a tweet from Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly. .
London and Washington evacuate diplomatic staff
The United Kingdom and the United States have, for their part, initiated the evacuation of their diplomatic personnel. “British Armed Forces have carried out a complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families from Sudan,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday evening, United States President Joe Biden announced the evacuation of “US government personnel from Khartoum”, adding: “This tragic violence in Sudan has already claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. This is insane and it must stop. »
US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said the decision was made because of the “unacceptable risk” posed to embassy staff. The operation resulted in the evacuation of “just under a hundred” people, including several foreign diplomats, John Bass, a senior State Department official, told reporters.
The FSR paramilitaries claimed to have “coordinated” the evacuation with the United States, statements denied by John Bass, who refers to an operation “led only” by American special forces.
Egypt, Sudan’s big neighbor to the north, announced the evacuation “by land of 436 nationals” as gunshots and explosions shook Khartoum again on Sunday, according to witnesses.
Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday the first major evacuation operation since the fighting began. More than 150 people, including diplomats and foreign officials, have arrived in Jeddah, according to Saudi Foreign Affairs.
The control of Sudanese airports in question
Violence erupted in Khartoum on April 15 between the army of General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane, Sudan’s de facto ruler since the 2021 putsch, and his deputy turned rival, General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, who commands the FSRs. On Friday, the army announced that it had “agreed to a three-day ceasefire” for Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the month of Muslim fasting.
The UN, the United States and other countries had called for an end to the fighting. But, once again, the army and the FSR did not respect their commitments.
General Daglo’s FSRs said they were “ready to open all airports in Sudan” to evacuate foreigners. General Bourhane said on Saturday that the regular army “controls all the airports except those in Khartoum and Nyala”, the capital of South Darfur. While the two sides are also engaged in a communication battle, it is impossible to know who controls the country’s airports.
The two generals who took power in the 2021 coup are now engaged in a merciless struggle. They were unable to agree on the integration of General Daglo’s paramilitaries into General Bourhane’s regular troops, after weeks of political negotiations under international auspices.
In Sudan, Africa’s third largest gold producer and yet one of the poorest countries in the world, health services are devastated, and a third of the 45 million inhabitants suffer from hunger. The cessation of operations by most aid workers, after the death of at least four of them over the past week, will worsen the situation. And the conflict now threatens to gain ground beyond Sudan’s borders, experts say.
