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France launched an operation on Sunday to evacuate its citizens from Sudan where violent fighting between enemy factions continues. The United States decided to leave its diplomatic personnel.
France started a “rapid evacuation operation”, the Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday. The operation also includes citizens of other European and allied countries.
Hours earlier, US President Joe Biden declared that Washington had evacuated its government personnel from Khartoum with helicopters and temporarily suspended operations at its embassy.
Clashes in Sudan, a country of some 45 million people, broke out on April 15 between the army of General Abdel Fatah al Burhan, Sudan’s de facto ruler since the 2021 coup, and his rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (FAR).
The fighting is taking place essentially in Khartoum, the capital, and in the Darfur region, in the west of the country. Combat planes fly over the area while the paramilitary armored vehicles are advancing. This situation left terrified civilians sheltering in their homes. Many leave only to look for food or to flee and fear a resurgence of violence after the departure of the foreigners.
Caught between the fighting, they lack water and electricity, while food reserves are depleting. Internet and telephone networks work intermittently.
The attacks have already destroyed or forced the closure of “72% of the hospitals” in the combat zones, the doctors’ union warned.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 420 people have died and 3,700 have been injured so far.
The violence has also caused the displacement of tens of thousands of people to other states of Sudan or neighboring Chad and Egypt, and has led several countries to begin operations to evacuate their citizens.
About a hundred people, including several diplomats, were evacuated with the help of a helicopter, said a senior State Department official, John Bass. There are still hundreds of other US citizens in the country, whose evacuation is not planned “at the moment.”
