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In Sudan, the evacuations of foreigners, especially Europeans, continue on Monday. France, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and Egypt evacuated more than 1,000 people. Exfiltration operations are complex in the midst of intense fighting. Djibouti has opened an air corridor.
The Sudanese capital, Khartoum, remains under attack, with new clashes this Monday, April 24, between the forces of General Abdel Fatah al Burhan, who has ruled Sudan since the 2021 coup, and those of his rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (FAR).
The airport has been the target of attacks and Khartoum resounds with explosions and gunfire. A first plane of French evacuees and other nationalities arrived in Djibouti this Sunday, with a hundred people.
Several countries have managed to exfiltrate their citizens. According to the head of European diplomacy, more than 1,000 Europeans have been evacuated.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday night the evacuation of 100 people, 30 of them Spanish and the rest Argentine, Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelan, Irish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Sudanese.
The planes have just taken off from Khartoum. @EjercitoAire with our citizens and @EmbEspSudan on board. Other European and Latin American citizens also travel. No incident in the transfer of our convoy.
We call for a ceasefire and to resume dialogue in Sudan.
– José Manuel Albares (@jmalbares) April 23, 2023
The evacuation operations “are extremely complex” and could last until Tuesday, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Many countries have chosen Djibouti as a route to repatriate their nationals stranded in Sudan. The country is home to numerous foreign military bases.
“We have mobilized important media. Air police and border police are working. The air force has opened its facilities to accommodate people evacuated from Sudan. The planes land one after the other depending on the accommodation possibilities,” Daoud Houmed, a spokesman for the ruling party in Djibouti, told RFI.
blocked students
According to an adviser to Djiboutian President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, no African country has requested extractions. “So far it’s only been the Europeans,” he told RFI.
Mahamat Nour Zinedine is a Chadian student at the International University of Africa in Khartoum. He is waiting to be evacuated. “We have been in direct contact with the embassy since Sunday morning. They have contacted us and told us that they are doing everything possible to evacuate us as soon as possible. I have heard that there could be a big attack in Khartoum on Monday … They are doing everything possible… We are 300 foreign students”, he explains.
He also adds that the university that hosts them is running out of food.
The attacks have disabled “72% of hospitals” in combat zones, the doctors’ union warned.
The WHO estimates that some 420 people have died and more than 3,700 have been injured.
