The U.S. State Department told VOA it is “aware of reports that a number of U.S. citizens were able to depart Sudan” on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said no further comment can be provided because of privacy and security concerns.
Hours earlier, Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, said in a statement that his troops would facilitate the evacuation of diplomats and citizens from Britain, China, France and the United States, “in the coming hours.”
With fighting reported around Khartoum International Airport, though, it is still unclear how any major evacuation could unfold. The area around the airport has seen some of the most intense gun battles and shelling over the past week.
A reporter working for VOA based in Khartoum said he could hear heavy gunfire late in the day there, and he noted it appears both warring sides have resumed clashes, despite a proclaimed cease-fire.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been speaking repeatedly to both General Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF), known as Hemedti.
Blinken called on both generals to uphold the nationwide cease-fire through at least the end of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Sunday, April 23. The top U.S. diplomat also participated in a special ministerial session Thursday under the leadership of African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki, with all participating leaders unanimous on the urgent need for a cease-fire.
The two generals are former allies who seized power in a 2021 coup but later fell out in a bitter power struggle.
The sudden fighting that broke out one week ago has brought the city of more than 5 million people to the brink of collapse, with residents hunkering down inside their homes with no electricity amid bombardment, and with marauding fighters roaming the streets, looting homes.
Experts tell VOA the situation in Khartoum is dire. Nicole Widdersheim, the deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch, spoke with VOA via Zoom.
“What I’m most concerned about is we’re also hearing that Sudanese continue to try to flee the bombardment and the aerial strikes, which I understand from our experts who are in direct contact with people in Khartoum, this is getting worse. It’s getting more indiscriminate,” she said.
Widdersheim told VOA it is hard to understand why the two warring generals cannot at least uphold a cease-fire for the important Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
“What is unclear to me is if these leaders have control over all their forces now, because if you have this level of international community leaders saying, ‘listen, like we just need to get the basic safe passage for foreigners, we’ll work with you on bringing this to a nonviolent dialogue.’ It’s not clear to me that they have control over all their forces.”
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chaired an emergency response committee meeting Saturday regarding the situation in Sudan.
VOA reached out to the United Nations to see if there are plans to evacuate any of their 800 international staff. A spokesperson said, “We are exploring all options. Nothing to confirm as of now.”
Sudan’s military said army chief General Burhan had spoken to leaders of several countries requesting safe evacuations of their citizens and diplomats from Sudan, which has seen bloody clashes over the past week that have left more than 400 people dead.
Burhan said that diplomats from Saudi Arabia already had been evacuated from Port Sudan and airlifted back to the kingdom. He said that Jordan’s diplomats would soon be evacuated in the same way. Saudi State TV reported the first evacuation vessel from Sudan arrived Saturday in the port city of Jeddah, carrying 50 Saudi citizens and nationals from friendly countries. Egypt also has evacuated some of its personnel, while Japan is preparing to evacuate.
The U.S. State Department has said there are some 70 U.S. Embassy staff members in Khartoum, and it has been working to gather them in one location. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel had a warning Friday for non-government U.S. citizens in Sudan.
“We have advised Americans to not travel to Sudan since August 2021 and the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum’s security alert on April 16 stated that due to the uncertain security situations in Khartoum and closure of the airport, Americans should have no expectation of a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation at this time,” Patel said. “It is imperative that U.S. citizens in Sudan make their own arrangements to stay safe in these difficult circumstances.”
Patel said U.S. authorities were in touch with several hundred U.S. citizens understood to be in Sudan. The State Department confirmed the death of one U.S. citizen in the country. The person was not a U.S. government employee.
The State Department provided this statement to VOA on Saturday:
“The U.S. Embassy continues to closely monitor the situation in Khartoum and surrounding areas. U.S. citizens are strongly advised to remain indoors, shelter in place until further notice, and avoid travel to the Embassy. We are in communication with private U.S. citizens who may be in the region about safety measures and other precautions. U.S. citizens in Sudan should enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive security alerts and email ACSKhartoum@state.gov if they need assistance. At this time, the U.S. government cannot provide emergency consular services to U.S. citizens in Sudan, due to the current security situation. However, we have a team of consular officers in Washington, D.C., who are working around the clock to communicate directly with U.S. citizens.”
Sudan borders seven countries and sits between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Africa’s volatile Sahel region. The violence broke out as an internationally backed transition plan to form a new civilian government was scheduled to take effect, four years after the fall of Omar al-Bashir. Both the government and the paramilitary forces accuse each other of thwarting the transition.
Michael Atit and Margaret Besheer contributed to this story.
Comments are closed.