KHARTUM: Battles raging in Sudan between the army and paramilitary force have sparked many evacuation operations to rescue diplomats and foreign nationals, including Pakistanis, by road, air, and sea, AFP reported on Monday.
The main airport in Khartoum has been the site of intense clashes, effectively closing its operations. Fighting elsewhere has caused delays to some scheduled rescue efforts and operations.
Many countries unable to send forces into the country relied on others to evacuate their citizens via ports and military bases, with France and Saudi Arabia both evacuating a number of foreigners.
Some evacuations occur from the Red Sea’s Port Sudan, an 850-kilometre drive from Khartoum, and others through nearby Djibouti and Egypt.
Arab and North African countries’ evacuation operations
Saudi Arabia led the first reported successful evacuation activities on Saturday, with naval operations picking up over 150 people, including 66 nationals from twelve other countries.
Egypt’s military last week extracted 177 of its soldiers from Sudan. On Sunday, the foreign ministry announced that 436 citizens had left by land. Over 10,000 Egyptian nationals are thought to live in the war-hit Sudan.
Both Algeria and Tunisia have announced rescue operations starting on Monday. Jordan — whose military airbases have been used for some rescue flights — said on Saturday it had started the evacuation of around three hundred citizens with the cooperation of Saudi Arabia and UAE, while fifty-two Lebanese and 105 Libyan nationals had also left on a Saudi naval vessel.
US and Canada evacuation operations
On Sunday, the US military sent 3 Chinook helicopters to extract American embassy staff from Khartoum, staying on the ground for less than an hour and evacuating just under 100 people.
US officials have warned that any big effort to evacuate American nationals is unlikely in the coming days. The US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN on Monday that authorities were monitoring with “unmanned aerial assets” a UN convoy bound for Port Sudan that includes “several dozen Americans”. Canada has evacuated its embassy team, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
The British military has extracted UK embassy staff. British nationals still trapped in Sudan have been calling for assistance.
France has airlifted four hundred people hailing from multiple countries to Djibouti.
Italy evacuated around two hundred people in a military operation on Sunday, extracting all Italian nationals who “had asked to leave” and others, including Vatican’s representatives.
Ankara started operations on Sunday, taking 600 nationals by road from Khartoum and Wad Madani city. But plans were postponed from one site in the capital after “explosions” in the area–AFP
