France evacuated 538 people, including 209 French, from Sudan, a country on the verge of chaos after ten days of deadly fighting between the army and paramilitaries, Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday April 25. The President of the Republic, who was speaking at the start of a defense council at the Elysée, also declared that the man injured on Sunday in Khartoum, the capital, in still undetermined circumstances during the evacuation , was a French special forces soldier. The news of his state of health is “reassuring”, said Mr. Macron, before assuring that his “life is no longer in danger”.
The Head of State praised “exceptional work under extremely difficult conditions” by “our armies, consular and diplomatic agents” and “mobilized internal security forces”, to carry out these evacuations which also concerned “nationals from partner countries, especially African ones, who had requested our assistance”. He also thanked the two protagonists of the conflict for their cooperation as well as the President of Djibouti, Ismaël Omar Guelleh, and the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, for their help in these evacuations.
For its part, London has announced that it is starting the evacuation by military planes of its nationals from Sudan, thanks to the seventy-two-hour ceasefire concluded in the country between the belligerents. “Flights will be open to all Britons with a passport and priority will be given to families with children and/or older people or those with a medical condition,” the Foreign Office said in a statement posted on Twitter. .
The planes will take off “from an airfield outside Khartoum”, added the ministry, adding that people wishing to be evacuated will be contacted in advance and “should not go to the airfield by themselves if they have not been contacted”. “The situation remains unstable and our ability to conduct evacuations may change rapidly,” the ministry said.
Seventy-two hour ceasefire
The British authorities began this evacuation shortly after the entry into force of the seventy-two hour ceasefire, concluded under the aegis of the United States. While several European countries had started evacuations on Sunday. More than a thousand nationals of the European Union (EU) have been repatriated, announced on Monday, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. Only diplomatic evacuations had been carried out by the United Kingdom and the United States.
For its part, Germany will proceed this Tuesday evening with a last evacuation flight from Sudan to Jordan of its nationals as well as citizens of other countries, announced the German foreign and defense ministries in a statement, stating that “no further German evacuation flights [were] planned from this area”.
“The Germans still present in Sudan who have not been able to get to the airport so far will also be supported by our international partners during their evacuation flights in the coming days,” the ministry added.
“Nearly 500 people from 30 countries were able to be evacuated from Khartoum thanks to our support, it’s a huge achievement”, welcomed the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock. On board the last flights chartered by the German army were dozens of Dutch, Canadians and even Jordanians, details the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Germany considered it “important” that the evacuations concern “not only the staff of [its] embassy, ??but all the Germans on the spot and [their] partners”, notes Ms. Baerbock, quoted in the press release.
“Very high” biohazards
Up to 270,000 people could flee from Sudan to Chad and South Sudan, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday. According to Laura Lo Castro, UNHCR representative in Chad, 20,000 refugees have arrived in the country, and the organization expects the arrival of up to 100,000 people “in the worst case”. Furthermore, “in South Sudan, the most likely scenario is 125,000 South Sudanese refugee returns and 45,000 refugees,” said UNHCR representative in that country, Marie-Hélène Verney, during a briefing. briefing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also warned on Tuesday of “very high” biological risks after the occupation of a national health laboratory by belligerents. This “public health laboratory is occupied by one of the belligerents and presents a very high biological risk”, underlined by videoconference the representative of the WHO in Sudan, Nima Saeed Abid, during a press briefing in Geneva, pointing out that samples of the pathogens of measles, cholera and poliomyelitis could be found in these facilities.
Violence erupted in Khartoum on April 15 between the army of General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane, de facto ruler of Sudan since the 2021 putsch, and his deputy turned rival, General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, who commands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The two generals who took power in the 2021 coup are engaged in a merciless struggle.
The fighting has already left more than 420 dead and 3,700 injured, according to the WHO. The violence in this East African country, one of the poorest in the world, risks “invading the whole region and beyond”, warned the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
