Global evacuations as Sudan violence surges

Many countries have evacuated their citizens from Sudan. David Thomas and Shoshana Kedem report.

Nations from around the world evacuated tens of thousands of their citizens from Sudan in April as deadly armed clashes between the army and an opposing militia threatened a prolonged war.

Fighting began in April between the forces of Sudan’s army, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), under General Abdel Fattah alBurhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. It followed the collapse of negotiations to re-integrate the RSF into the national army and facilitate an internationallybacked transition to civilian rule. The army and militia had combined to remove civilian elements from the government in an October 2021 coup.

At time of going to press over 500 had been killed and over 4000 wounded, with air and artillery strikes reported in the capital Khartoum.

African countries including Kenya, Uganda and Egypt launched operations to extract their citizens from the neighbouring state. They joined global and regional powers – including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Nigeria – which variously deployed road convoys, airlifts and ships to get their citizens out. Many countries urged all their citizens to leave Sudan as soon as possible. At time of going to press in late April US- and Saudi-brokered temporary ceasefires had only sporadically caused hostilities to cease. Sudanese civilians, struggling with shortages of food, water and fuel, have joined the exodus.

Isolation beckons

The upsurge in violence between military and militia has all but ended hopes that Sudan will transition from years of military rule to a period of sustainable civilian administration. That transition was a major hope of those who participated in the 2018 revolution that forced the autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir from power.

A protracted war is also likely to disrupt attempts to bring the Sudanese economy in from the cold after years of US-led sanctions directed at the pariah regime of al-Bashir. “It is likely that Hemedti and al-Burhan will face fresh sanctions in association with the war – and this would further dissuade inward investment,” says Ben Hunter, an analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

A protracted war is also likely to further disrupt the country’s stuttering oil and oil-transit industries, which analysts say are a valuable economic prize for the warring factions.

The RSF could target oil infrastructure linking South Sudan with Khartoum and the export terminal at

Port Sudan, where pipeline transit fees are controlled by the SAF. “Hemedti’s forces will seek to cut this off in the event of an extended war. Damage to oil infrastructure would disrupt the oil exports of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian operators in South Sudan that are 100% dependent on accessing the global market via Sudan,” says Hunter.

A protracted conflict also risks stoking tensions between regional and global powers, some of which have backed the army and some the militia. Al-Burhan and Hemedti developed close ties to Saudi Arabia after sending troops to participate in the Saudiled operation in Yemen. Hemedti has since courted relations with Saudi rival the UAE and with Russia, which has ambitions to build a Red Sea naval base, while the army has drawn closer to Egypt..