Foreign powers have rescued embassy staff, diplomats and nationals caught in Sudan’s deadly fighting, even as on the ground many Sudanese are stuck in deteriorating and deadly conditions.
At least 50 people were injured and an unknown number killed in shelling that rocked the capital Khartoum on Monday, the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors’ Union said in a statement.
Meanwhile foreign governments led rescue efforts to evacuate civilians from the intense conflict. US special forces helped bring almost 100 people – mostly US embassy staff, as well as a small number of diplomatic professionals from other countries – to safety over the weekend, US officials said.
Many other nations are scrambling to do the same, with more than 1,000 European Union nationals evacuated so far.
The United Nations has temporarily relocated its Khartoum-based staff to Port of Sudan, it said in a statement.
Around 700 UN, international NGO and embassy staff and their dependents traveled by road to the Red Sea city, the statement said.
The evacuations have been complicated by ongoing clashes. The two sides at the center of more than a week of fighting – Sudan’s army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – blamed each other after a French evacuation convoy came under fire trying to leave Sudan, with one French national injured.
Foreign powers have rescued embassy staff, diplomats and nationals caught in Sudan’s deadly fighting, even as on the ground many Sudanese are stuck in deteriorating and deadly conditions.
At least 50 people were injured and an unknown number killed in shelling that rocked the capital Khartoum on Monday, the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors’ Union said in a statement.
Meanwhile foreign governments led rescue efforts to evacuate civilians from the intense conflict. US special forces helped bring almost 100 people – mostly US embassy staff, as well as a small number of diplomatic professionals from other countries – to safety over the weekend, US officials said.
Many other nations are scrambling to do the same, with more than 1,000 European Union nationals evacuated so far.
The United Nations has temporarily relocated its Khartoum-based staff to Port of Sudan, it said in a statement.
Around 700 UN, international NGO and embassy staff and their dependents traveled by road to the Red Sea city, the statement said.
The evacuations have been complicated by ongoing clashes. The two sides at the center of more than a week of fighting – Sudan’s army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – blamed each other after a French evacuation convoy came under fire trying to leave Sudan, with one French national injured.
Smoke rises over Khartoum over the weekend. The fighting in Sudan’s capital between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces resumed after an internationally brokered cease-fire failed.Marwan Ali/AP
Germany carries out evacuations of citizens out of Sudan.German Defense Ministry
One staff member of the Egyptian embassy in Sudan was also shot and injured during an evacuation operation, Cairo’s foreign ministry said. Paris said later that it had closed the French embassy in Sudan until further notice.
Meanwhile, many Sudanese civilians are either trapped in their homes with dwindling food, or desperately looking to find exit routes out of the country via its land borders, with the capital’s main international airport still shuttered.
Sudan’s military leader, Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, and commander of the RSF, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, seized control of the country in a military coup in 2021 and were due to hand over power to a civilian government but turned on each other instead.
US has evacuated American diplomatic personnel from Sudan
More than 420 people have been killed and 3,700 injured in the fighting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The humanitarian situation on the ground is deteriorating without access to medical services, and with many left stranded without food or water.
Smoke rises over Khartoum over the weekend. The fighting in Sudan’s capital between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces resumed after an internationally brokered cease-fire failed.Marwan Ali/AP
Germany carries out evacuations of citizens out of Sudan.German Defense Ministry
One staff member of the Egyptian embassy in Sudan was also shot and injured during an evacuation operation, Cairo’s foreign ministry said. Paris said later that it had closed the French embassy in Sudan until further notice.
Meanwhile, many Sudanese civilians are either trapped in their homes with dwindling food, or desperately looking to find exit routes out of the country via its land borders, with the capital’s main international airport still shuttered.
Sudan’s military leader, Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, and commander of the RSF, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, seized control of the country in a military coup in 2021 and were due to hand over power to a civilian government but turned on each other instead.
US has evacuated American diplomatic personnel from Sudan
More than 420 people have been killed and 3,700 injured in the fighting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The humanitarian situation on the ground is deteriorating without access to medical services, and with many left stranded without food or water.
Residents in parts of Khartoum told CNN early on Sunday morning that there were no signs that the cessation of hostilities was being adhered to, as they awoke to aerial attacks, heavy artillery, explosions and gunfire. They relayed that clashes were raging around the military headquarters and presidential palace in the city center.
‘Complex and rapid’ operations
Despite the risks, foreign governments continue to announce rescue missions for their citizens.
US citizens in Sudan were advised they could join evacuation convoys organized by the UAE and Turkey on Sunday, with the US government saying it has no plans for its own citizen evacuation.
There are an estimated 16,000 American citizens in Sudan – most of whom are dual nationals.
Italian citizens onboard an Italian Air Force C130 aircraft during their evacuation from Khartoum in Sudan, as rescue efforts ramp up.Ministero della Difesa/Reuters
Some countries have already successfully carried out evacuations, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Jordan, Italy, France, Denmark and Germany. Several of their convoys also carried citizens from other countries, including Swedes, Portuguese, Mexicans, Palestinians, Iraqis and Syrians.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said Monday that more than 1,000 EU nationals have been evacuated so far, calling it a “successful operation.”
Jordanian citizens and other nationals who were evacuated from Sudan arrive at Marka Military Airport in Amman, Jordan on April 24, 2023.Alaa Al Sukhni/Reuters
More evacuations are still being planned or are underway for the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Egypt, Turkey, Libya, India, Russia, Australia, Japan, China and the Philippines.
About 500 Indian nationals reached Port Sudan with more on the way, India’s Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar said Monday.
The German Armed Forces evacuated 311 people on Monday morning, including Germans and evacuees from more than 20 other nations. A Spanish military plane with 34 Spaniards and 38 citizens from 11 other nations landed in Madrid on Monday morning, according to Spain’s foreign ministry.
Uganda is evacuating 300 of its citizens via buses to the Ethiopian border, where they will fly out of Ethiopian city of Gondar, Dickson Ogwang, the head of the chancery of the Ugandan embassy in Khartoum, told CNN.
Up to 50 Irish citizens have been extracted from Sudan in the last 24 hours with the assistance of France and Spain, the country’s foreign minister said Monday.
In Rome, the first Italian nationals evacuated from Sudan landed in the capital on Monday evening local time. Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that some Japanese nations evacuated from Sudan had arrived in Djibouti, with the help of the French government.
An aircraft from the French Air Force, which picked up evacuees of different nationalities from Sudan, arrives in Djibouti.French President Emmanuel Macron/Twitter/Reuters
At the same time, Britons in Sudan said they feel “abandoned” by the UK government’s move to evacuate diplomats only.
One British citizen, named Fatima, told the BBC that she feels “abandoned” by the government, calling the situation on the ground “traumatizing.”
Meanwhile, the UK’s Africa Minister Andrew Mitchell has stressed that the government “will do everything” it can to get thousands of British citizens out of Sudan.
‘Stay and risk starvation, or be killed by a stray bullet’
But as foreign nationals rush out on evacuation planes, millions of Sudanese citizens have been left to fend for themselves – stranded for days in their homes and uncertain of how to make their way out to safety.
International organizations have condemned the fighting, which has targeted hospitals. Out of 79 hospitals in the Sudanese capital, only 22 are currently operational, according to the Central Committee for Sudan Doctors.
One doctor told CNN that food and medical supplies are running precariously low. Howeida Al-Hassan, who is a doctor at Khartoum’s Alban Jadid Hospital, told CNN that most victims coming into the hospital have suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
“Every injured person we get has multiple gunshot wounds – bullets in the chest, stomach, leg. Each surgery takes a long time,” Al-Hassan told CNN on Monday.
She also says the medical team at the hospital have been working around the clock for the past 10 days.
“It’s the same staff from the first day [of the fighting]. We went in and never left. We are very exhausted. We sleep sitting down,” Al-Hassan said. “You can’t really call it sleeping, it’s more like passing out.”
As regions of Sudan are battered by the violence, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it will have to “adapt” its emergency response.
“We have managed to relocate some our staff by road to Kassala and Gedaref and will try to evacuate some non-essential personnel by road to Ethiopia and Chad,” Africa’s regional spokesperson Alyona Synenko told CNN in a statement.
“We are also urgently looking for ways to deploy additional personnel and deliver supplies to provide emergency response in Khartoum and other regions of Sudan affected by fighting.”
Isma’il Kushkush, a Sudanese-American journalist based in Khartoum, was trapped with 29 residents, including children and foreign nationals, in a building in downtown Khartoum near the presidential palace for days.
“No power or water for five days. Using little water remaining in water tank. Running out of food rations. Unable to leave the building which is located two blocks from the presidential palace. Epicenter of the fighting since the conflict began,” he said in a string of text messages to CNN. The group was later safely evacuated.
