The leader of the Sudanese Army, Abdelfatah al Burhan, announced this Saturday that "in the next few hours" the evacuation of nationals from countries such as the United States, Great Britain, France and China by air from Khartoum will begin. Meanwhile, sporadic gunfire and airstrikes echoed across Khartoum, the same that in recent days have prevented safe evacuation operations, and despite pledges by the warring sides to ceasefire for three days after a week of conflicts that have left hundreds dead.
"The evacuation process of all missions whose countries so request is expected to begin in the coming hours, as the United States, Great Britain, France and China will evacuate their diplomats and citizens by air with military transport planes belonging to to its Armed Forces from Khartoum. And that process is scheduled to start immediately," Armed Forces spokesman Nabil Abdullah said in a statement.
The source confirmed that "the Saudi diplomatic mission was evacuated by land to Port Sudan (east) and from there by plane to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the departure of the Jordanian mission will be ensured later in the same way."
In this way, Saudi Arabia would be the first country to manage to evacuate its diplomatic mission from Sudan, although the Kingdom's Foreign Ministry announced today that "it has begun preparations for the evacuation", without confirming that it has already been carried out, in the that they will also repatriate nationals from other "brother countries", without giving further details.
Al Burhan received calls from the heads of several countries to "request that the evacuation of their citizens and diplomatic missions from the country be facilitated and guaranteed, and His Excellency agreed to provide the necessary assistance to ensure this to several countries," the statement said. .
The powerful paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR) announced a few hours ago that it was also giving the green light to the "partial" reopening of Sudanese airports to proceed with the evacuation of foreigners.
However, it is unknown what each group controls in the capital, as both warring parties claim control of the same facilities, such as Khartoum International Airport, the largest in Sudan.
In the last two days, several countries such as the United States, Japan, Spain and South Korea have announced the deployment of planes to Djibouti, some 1,700 kilometers from the Sudanese capital, from where the evacuation will be coordinated. The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, assured yesterday in Berlin that until then the conditions had not yet been met to evacuate due to the "intense combat".
Khartoum International Airport remains closed and intense clashes continue between the warring parties in the vicinity of this vital facility, despite the three-day truce in force since yesterday for the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The fighting between the military rivals continued this Saturday in the Sudanese capital, in the vicinity of the presidential palace and the General Command of the Army, while a projectile hit a residential neighborhood that caused the death of six people.
At least 413 people have died and 3,551 have been injured in Sudan since the outbreak of the conflict, according to the latest count released yesterday by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The fighting that began on April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the FAR arose after weeks of tension over the reform of the security forces in the negotiations to form a new transitional government. Both forces were the architects of the joint coup that overthrew the transitional government of Sudan in October 2021.
