Countries rush to evacuate their nationals from Sudan due to conflict

A large number of countries, including Spain, began the process of repatriating their nationals from Sudan by air on Sunday, in an operation in which there have already been incidents, such as a French citizen wounded by a bullet, despite the truce in force between the two warring Sudanese parties.

The United States was the first country to carry out the evacuation by air in the early hours of this morning, but only diplomats and their families, while the rest of the countries, mostly European, have followed the American lead.

Saudi Arabia decided yesterday to evacuate its own nationals and those of other countries by land and sea, using five ships that sailed from Port Sudan (east) to the coastal city of Jeddah on the Red Sea.

US President Joe Biden announced that, on his orders, the United States today evacuated its government personnel from Khartoum and temporarily suspended its embassy operations in Sudan.

The White House acknowledged that Ethiopia, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia were "instrumental" in the successful exit, according to a statement.

In total, fewer than 100 people were evacuated and about 100 US forces were involved in the operation.

France, the second Western country to evacuate, had to interrupt the operation after its convoy came under attack, according to the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR).

Both sides in the conflict accuse each other of attacking the French embassy convoy, in which a French citizen was shot and wounded, both Sudanese sources said, although France has so far not reacted to the information.

In a statement, the Sudanese army accused the FAR of "attacking the French embassy convoy with gunfire, which caused its return and the interruption of the evacuation process" and claimed that "one of the French nationals was wounded by a sniper's bullet".

In a completely different version, the FAR said on its official Twitter account that "while the convoy was leaving under the protection of our forces, it was the target of a vicious attack by the coup forces (the army), while the Rapid Support Forces responded to the attack and shot down the plane".

Sporadic clashes continued today in Khartoum, although a tense calm has also prevailed amid a three-day truce that began last Friday for the Aid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, although that pause has not been respected.

This is the fifth truce announced between the two sides in the conflict since the conflict began on the 15th, which has caused more than 400 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

نزوح اعداد كبيرة من سكان ولاية الخرطوم إلى ولايات الجزيرة ونهر النيل والشمالية جراء المعارك الدائرة بين الجيش وقوات الدعم السريع المتمردة #السودان pic.twitter.com/HmtiritqJp

— Sudan News (@Sudan_tweet) April 23, 2023

Other European countries said they were ready to evacuate today.

European sources, who requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told EFE that Spain could begin the evacuation process today, without giving further details for security reasons.

Following the information, Spanish diplomatic sources confirmed to EFE in Madrid that the Spanish army planes that have flown to Djibouti to evacuate some 80 people, including Spaniards, Europeans and South Americans, who are trapped in Sudan, are waiting for a safe space to land and begin the operation.

The Dutch embassy in Sudan said it would evacuate its citizens and local staff to a "safe" place, while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said today that the citizens have been contacted overnight and are all well and have been invited to come to the embassy in Khartoum as "an evacuation will be attempted as soon as possible".

Internet access in Sudan suffered a "near total collapse" with national connectivity at 2 per cent, NetBlocks, a platform that monitors user connectivity and web censorship, said on its official Twitter account.

The fighting that began on 15 April between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) followed weeks of tension over the reform of the security forces in negotiations to form a new transitional government.

Both forces were behind the joint coup that overthrew Sudan's transitional government in October 2021.