US, other nations scramble to evac citizens as Sudan battles rip capital
KHARTOUM, Sudan—US troops swooped in on helicopters to evacuate embassy staff from Sudan’s battle-torn capital, President Joe Biden said Sunday, as other nations sought to help their citizens flee deadly fighting between rival generals.
France and Turkey on Sunday also launched evacuation operations from the chaos-torn northeast African nation, where ongoing fighting has entered its second week.
Ferocious battles between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group -- which has seen fighting with tanks in densely populated Khartoum and air strikes launched by fighter jets—have killed more than 400 people and left thousands wounded.
Biden, who said the US military “conducted an operation” to extract US government personnel, condemned the violence, saying “it’s unconscionable and it must stop”.
Just over 100 US special operations troops took part in the rescue to extract fewer than 100 people, which saw three Chinook helicopters fly from Djibouti, staying on the ground in Khartoum for less than an hour.
France’s foreign ministry said Sunday a “rapid evacuation operation” had begun, and that European citizens and those from “allied partner countries” would also be assisted, without giving further details.
Fighting continued Sunday with the crackle of automatic gunfire echoing across Khartoum and Sudanese military aircraft roaring overhead, witnesses said.
Turkey began rescue operations at dawn via road from the southern city of Wad Medani, but plans were postponed from one site in Khartoum after “explosions” near a mosque designated as the assembly area, the embassy said on Twitter.
Scramble to evacuate
Frightened residents, many low on water, food and other essentials, have huddled inside their homes in the capital where buildings have been gutted, lampposts are lying on the ground, and smoke has been rising from shops set on fire.
Heavy fighting broke out on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The former allies seized power in a 2021 coup but later fell out in a bitter power struggle.
Daglo’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed fighters unleashed in Darfur by former strongman leader Omar alBashir, where they were accused of war crimes.
Multiple truces have been agreed and ignored.
Khartoum’s airport has been the site of heavy fighting with aircraft destroyed on the runway, and is under the control of the RSF.
US Under Secretary of State John Bass said that the RSF “cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members”, warning any wider effort to evacuate thousands of other American citizens was unlikely in the coming days.
More than 150 people from various nations reached the safety of Saudi Arabia after naval forces launched a rescue across the Red Sea on Saturday, collecting both Saudi citizens and nationals from 12 other countries from Port Sudan.
Other foreign countries have said they are preparing for the potential evacuation of thousands more of their nationals, with South Korea and Japan deploying forces to nearby countries, and the European Union weighing a similar move.