By Ntombi Mhlongo
As the conflicts in Sudan rage on, several evacuation operations to rescue embassy staff by road, air, and sea are being conducted.
It has been reported that the main airport in the capital Khartoum has been the site of heavy fighting and is under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is battling the army.
According to Africa News, some evacuations are taking place from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, an 850-kilometre drive from Khartoum. Saudi Arabia is said to have led the first reported successful evacuation with
naval operations picking up more than 150 people including foreign diplomats and officials from Port Sudan on Saturday.
An announcement of a safe arrival of 91 Saudi citizens and around 66 nationals from 12 other countries – Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philipines, Canada, and Burkina Faso as announced on Sunday.
Read More: The status of foreign states’ Sudan evacuation efforts
On the same day, the US military sent three Chinook helicopters to evacuate American embassy staff from Khartoum. More than 100 US forces took part in the rescue to extract fewer than 100 people, which saw the choppers flying from Djibouti to Ethiopia to Sudan, where they stayed on the ground for less than an hour.
Several thousand US citizens including dual nationals are thought to remain in the country. Africa News also reported that around 100 people of multiple nationalities have been evacuated from Sudan on the first French flight out of the country.
Also, the British army has evacuated UK embassy staff and their families in a “complex and rapid” operation, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a tweet. Other reports are to the effect that Egypt’s foreign ministry confirmed to have evacuated 436 citizens on Sunday.
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A member of Cairo’s diplomatic mission was previously shot, the ministry said, without providing further details. Other foreign countries preparing evacuations include South Korea and Japan, which have deployed forces to nearby countries.
India said it had two air force planes “on standby” in Saudi Arabia and a navy ship had arrived in Port Sudan, but any evacuations “would depend on the security situation”, according to a foreign ministry statement.
The Sudanese army has said it is also coordinating efforts to evacuate diplomats from China. Indonesia said 43 citizens were sheltering inside the embassy compound in Khartoum.
