France, UK and US evacuate embassy staff from Sudan

2023-04-23 05:24:33

France on Sunday ordered a “rapid evacuation operation” of its nationals and diplomatic personnel from Sudan, where deadly fighting between the regular army and paramilitaries has been raging for more than a week. London and Washington have also repatriated their diplomatic personnel.

A “rapid evacuation operation” of its diplomatic personnel and its nationals in Sudan was initiated by France, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Armed Forces, Sunday, April 23.

This operation, which is being carried out in conjunction with all the stakeholders, as well as European partners and allies of France, includes EU nationals as well as European diplomatic staff, he specified.

London has also evacuated its diplomatic staff and their families, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “I pay tribute to the commitment of our diplomats and the bravery of the military personnel who carried out this difficult operation,” he tweeted.

UK armed forces have completed a complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families from Sudan, amid a significant escalation in violence and threats to embassy staff.

I pay tribute to the commitment of our diplomats and bravery of the military personnel who…

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 23, 2023

For its part, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said it was taking part in an international evacuation operation, stressing that its teams would do their best to evacuate citizens “quickly”. Italy and Turkey also announced that repatriation operations for their nationals were to be carried out during the day.

A few hours earlier, the United States evacuated embassy staff, announced Joe Biden, who called for a ceasefire.n this East African country, where fighting between the regular army and paramilitary forces has been raging for a week.

“Today, at my request, the United States military conducted an operation to extract US government personnel from Khartoum,” the US president said in a statement released late Saturday evening Washington time.

“This tragic violence in Sudan has already claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. It is senseless and it must stop,” he added.

He particularly thanked, according to the press release, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia for their support in this operation.

05:06

“Eventless” helicopter operation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “all US personnel and their families” have left the country, adding that the United States will continue to assist Americans in Sudan in their preparations to ensure their safety.

A small number of diplomats from other countries have also been evacuated, US officials said, as embassy activity has been “temporarily suspended” since Saturday.

The US operation involved three CH-47 Chinook helicopters and allowed the evacuation of “a little less than a hundred” people, including several foreign diplomats, said a senior State Department official, John Bass. , to journalists.

The helicopters left Djibouti and then stopped in Ethiopia, before going to Khartoum where they stayed less than an hour, added a Pentagon official, Lieutenant General Douglass Sims.

“We were able to enter and exit without incident,” the same source added.

US nationals still there

Earlier, the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan announced that they had “coordinated” with the United States to evacuate their embassy in Khartoum.

But John Bass dismissed any notion of the operation “coordinating” with the FSR and said it was “conducted solely” by US special forces.

It has required beforehand in recent days to bring together in one place these staff scattered in Khartoum.

This evacuation operation, prepared since the beginning of the week, only concerned government personnel and not American nationals in Sudan, who would be several hundred.

In view of the security conditions, “we do not plan to coordinate at the government level an evacuation of the remaining fellow citizens for the moment”, declared John Bass, while stressing that the American authorities were increasing contacts with their nationals encouraging them to put in safety.

>> To read also: Behind the violence in Sudan, an “existential” conflict between two military leaders

More than 150 people evacuated by Saudi Arabia

After a relative calm the previous night, fighting resumed on Saturday in Khartoum, largely deprived of electricity and running water. The internet was virtually inoperative across the country, according to the NetBlocks organization, which monitors web access across the world.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia announced that it had evacuated more than 150 people from Sudan to the port of Jeddah. The evacuation was carried out by the kingdom’s naval forces with the support of other branches of the military, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement, announcing the “safe arrival” of 91 Saudi citizens and regarding 66 nationals from 12 other countries.

These include Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Philippines, Canada and Burkina Faso, according to the press release. “Diplomats and international officials” were among those rescued, according to the same source.

German defense and foreign ministers said they held a crisis meeting on Saturday to discuss the feasibility of an evacuation, following three military planes were forced to turn back on Wednesday, German magazine Der Spiegel reported. .

For several days, the United States, South Korea and Japan have deployed forces in neighboring countries, and the European Union is considering taking similar measures to evacuate their diplomats and nationals from Sudan.

Violence erupted there on April 15 between the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, de facto ruler of Sudan since the putsch of 2021, and his deputy who became a rival, Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF ), feared paramilitaries.

On Friday, the army announced that it had “accepted a three-day ceasefire” for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Muslim fasting.

But the army and the FSR did not respect their commitments to take a break. The still very provisional toll stands at more than 420 dead and 3,700 injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

With AFP

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