In Sudan, countries continue to try to evacuate their citizens after nine days of non-stop fighting pitting the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader, against his second-turned-rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces (FAR). Caught in the crossfire, civilians and foreign diplomats are being repatriated by air or sea as foreign capitals manage to negotiate passage with the warring parties.
Meanwhile, desperate Sudanese are looking for ways to escape the conflict, fearing that once the evacuations are over, the violence will escalate. Many Sudanese, along with other foreigners who are not guaranteed repatriation, are risking the perilous journey to Egypt's northern border fearing fighting will intensify when the evacuations end.
More than 1,000 citizens of the European Union have already been evacuated from Sudan, as announced this Monday morning by the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell. "It is a complex operation, but it has been crowned with success," Borrell said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. On Friday, a European official told France Presse that some 1,500 European citizens were in Khartoum, so the evacuation of a third of the European colony would have been completed.
Saudi Arabia was the first country to evacuate its citizens and nationals of "sister" states by boat from Port Sudan in the north, across the Red Sea to the safe port of Jeddah. The seaway facilitated the first evacuation efforts, although it required a journey of 800 km by road from Khartoum. Egypt, which has more than 10,000 of its citizens in Sudan, urged residents of cities other than Khartoum to go to consular offices in Port Sudan and Wadi Halfa, also in the north, for evacuation.
The air route was more complicated, because the airports remained partially closed, but international military planes were able to land in the Khartoum area and take out foreign citizens from Sunday. The United States was the first Western nation to evacuate its diplomatic personnel, using military helicopters. They were followed by: France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Jordan, among others, such as Spain, whose two military planes took off last night from Khartoum with 30 Spaniards and 70 other Latin American and European citizens.
Unlike Spain, many of these countries have not yet completed their evacuation missions. France and Germany hope to continue operations if the fragile ceasefire (partially broken since Friday) allows it. The United Kingdom and the United States have only evacuated their diplomats, but there are about 2,000 British citizens who have requested repatriation from Khartoum and complain about the lack of information about the evacuation plans of the Rishi Sunak government. Washington said it was too dangerous to organize an evacuation with all the other US citizens residing in Sudan.
The violence, mainly in Khartoum and Darfur (west), has claimed more than 420 deaths and 3,700 injuries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Up to 20,000 Sudanese have fled the fighting, the UN said last week, but millions are sheltering in their homes amid explosions, gunfire and looting that have left Khartoum and other cities without electricity, food or water. And without working 70% of its hospitals.
