US embassy evacuated as Sudan fighting enters 2nd week

KHARTOUM: US troops evacuated embassy staff from Sudan's capital, President Joe Biden announced Sunday, as other nations sought to help their citizens escape deadly fighting between rival generals.

The clashes between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group -- which just entered their second week -- have killed more than 400 people and left thousands wounded, while survivors cope with shortages of electricity and food, as well as a reported internet outage.

"Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract U.S. Government personnel from Khartoum," Biden said in a statement released late Saturday night, Washington time.

He expressed gratitude for the "unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety", adding that Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia had helped in the operation.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his department had "temporarily suspended operations" at the embassy, citing "the serious and growing security risks created by the conflict".

Saudi announces first civilian evacuations from Sudan

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the militia currently challenging the authority of the regular army in the capital and elsewhere, tweeted hours earlier that it had "coordinated with the U.S Forces Mission consisting of 6 aircraft, for evacuating diplomats and their families on Sunday morning".

In his statement, Biden also called for an immediate ceasefire and condemned the deadly violence: "It's unconscionable and it must stop."

Other foreign countries have said they are preparing for the potential evacuation of thousands more of their nationals, even though Sudan's main airport remains closed.

More than 150 people from various nations reached the safety of Saudi Arabia a day earlier, in the first announced evacuation of civilians.

As the kingdom's naval forces transported the civilians -- including diplomats and international officials -- across the Red Sea from Port Sudan to Jeddah, fighting resumed in Khartoum after a temporary truce saw gunfire momentarily die down on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Fitr.

'Living in darkness'

In Khartoum, a city of five million people, the conflict has left terrified civilians sheltering inside their homes. Many have ventured out only to get urgent food supplies -- stocks of which are dwindling -- or to flee the city.

"All the residents here are suffering from the water issue," said Khartoum resident Awad Ahmad Sherif.

"We also didn't have electricity, we got the current back three days ago. We were living in darkness, it's not normal, first we didn't have water and then we didn't have power. We ask God for our safety."

Adding to residents' woes was a "near-total collapse of internet connectivity" across the country, according to NetBlocks, a London-based organisation that monitors web access around the world.

While the capital has seen some of the fiercest clashes, they have occurred across the country.

Battles have raged in Darfur, where Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the city of El Fasher said their medics had been "overwhelmed" by the number of patients with gunshot wounds, many of them children.

On Saturday, heavy gunfire, loud explosions and fighter jets were heard in many parts of the capital, according to witnesses, despite the army announcing an agreement to a three-day ceasefire a day earlier.

Two 24-hour ceasefires announced earlier in the week were also ignored.

Sudan's army said Saturday its chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had received calls from leaders of multiple countries to "facilitate and guarantee safety for evacuating citizens and diplomatic missions".

Burhan, meanwhile, told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that the army was in control of "all airports, except for Khartoum airport" and one in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

More plans are being made to evacuate foreigners, with South Korea and Japan deploying forces to nearby countries, and the European Union weighing a similar move.

The German ministers of defence and foreign affairs held a crisis meeting Saturday on a possible evacuation, after three military transport planes had to turn back Wednesday, according to German weekly Der Spiegel.

Urban warfare began on April 15 between forces loyal to Burhan and those of his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Daglo commands the RSF, which emerged from the Janjaweed fighters unleashed in Darfur by former leader Omar al-Bashir, drawing accusations of war crimes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 420 people had been killed and over 3,700 wounded in the fighting across Sudan, but the actual death toll is thought to be higher.

More than two-thirds of hospitals in Khartoum and neighbouring states are now "out of service", and at least four hospitals in North Kordofan state were shelled, the doctors' union said.

The World Food Programme said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where one-third of the population needs aid.

Burhan and Daglo's dispute centred on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army, a key condition for a deal aimed at restoring Sudan's democratic transition after the military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following mass citizen protests.

In October 2021, Burhan and Daglo joined forces to oust a civilian government installed after Bashir's downfall.