() — All US diplomats and their families left Sudan safely in us military aircraftand the US embassy in Khartoum was also closed with his departure, a US official told .
The decision to evacuate US personnel comes after a week of heavy fighting between rival military factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, which has left hundreds dead and thousands injured. .
The US military deployed “additional capabilities” near Sudan in recent days to prepare for a possible evacuation of the US embassy as US officials continued to monitor the volatile situation on the ground.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the heads of the warring parties to reach a ceasefire agreement for the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which would allow a potential window to evacuate the US diplomats who had been sheltering in place since the violence broke out.
Despite statements by both sides that they had agreed to such a ceasefire, the fighting has continued.
The SAF said in a statement on Saturday that its leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had “agreed to provide the necessary assistance” to facilitate the safe evacuation of foreign nationals from the country in response to “calls from various heads of state.”
The RSF said in a statement released overnight Khartoum time that it coordinated the evacuation with the United States. cannot corroborate RSF’s claims that they collaborated with the evacuation.
The US Embassy in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.
Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images/FILE
Although the US evacuated its diplomats, on Friday the State Department’s principal deputy spokesman, Vedant Patel, said that “due to uncertain security situations in Khartoum and the closure of the airport, Americans should not expect a coordinated evacuation by the US government at this time.”
Patel noted that the State Department has contacted “several hundred American citizens who we understand to be in Sudan” to discuss “security precautions and other steps they can take on their own.”
The State Department does not maintain official counts of US citizens in foreign countries, and Americans are not required to register when traveling abroad. Officials told staff Wednesday that there may be approximately 16,000 US citizens in Sudan, most of whom are dual nationals.
‘s Eyad Kourdi contributed to this report.
