Sudan Army agrees to assist in evacuation of foreign nationals
Apr 22, 2023
Khartoum [Sudan], April 22 : After a week of battle, there is hope that the evacuation of foreign nationals from Sudan will now be possible after both of the opposing parties vying for control of Sudan declared they are prepared to do so, according to CNN.
The Sudanese army announced in a recent statement that it had consented to assist in evacuating citizens and diplomats from several nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and China.
Evacuations are expected to begin "within the coming hours," according to the statement, CNN reported on Saturday.
In order to allow nations to evacuate their citizens, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) declared on Friday that they were prepared to reopen all airports in Sudan to air traffic partially.
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary RSF, under the direction of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, engaged in fierce fighting last Saturday in Sudan.
Although the two were once partners, tensions between them developed amid talks to incorporate the RSF into the nation's military as part of preparations to reestablish a civilian government.
Fighting continued in Khartoum on Friday, even though the Sudanese army said it had reached an understanding with the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for a three-day ceasefire to allow civilians to observe the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr. The RSF announced earlier in the day that a 72-hour ceasefire had been reached in observance of Eid.
Countries including Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and the US have been unable to evacuate embassy workers since the airport in Khartoum is engulfed in violence and the skies are insecure, read a report published in Al Jazeera.
According to a Western diplomat, the Sudanese evacuation situation is among the most challenging they have ever encountered. The US is probably concentrating on achieving a truce so that its personnel may be evacuated. Washington has said that private US citizens living in Sudan shouldn't expect a coordinated evacuation by the US government. Vedant Patel, the deputy spokeswoman for the US State Department, stated that authorities were in contact with hundreds of US individuals believed to remain in Sudan.
The State Department on Friday confirmed the death of a US citizen there.
The conflict began when a coup in 2021 between Sudan's military leader and his deputy on the ruling council erupted derailing a plan for a transition to a civilian democracy after the fall of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Elections were supposed to be held by the end of 2023.
