conflicts
Reports: US evacuates its own diplomats from Sudan
Smoke billows over Khartoum after an attack. photo
© Abdullah Moneim/Abdullah Moneim/AP/dpa
Foreign governments have been preparing to evacuate their citizens for days. The US diplomats stationed in the country are now all out of the country, according to CNN.
According to media reports, the USA has taken its embassy staff out of the country in view of the heavy fighting in Sudan. The evacuation by US Air Force aircraft on Sunday night was successful, reports the Washington Post and broadcasters ABC and CBS, citing government circles.
The US embassy in the Sudanese capital Khartoum has been closed. According to CNN, all US diplomats stationed in Sudan and their families were on board the military planes. There was initially no official confirmation or information as to where the embassy staff had been flown to.
Evacuation of American civilians not guaranteed
For days, the US military had been preparing with other Western countries for the evacuation of their own citizens. Additional armed forces were transferred to countries neighboring Sudan. Heavy fighting in and around the embattled airport in Khartoum had so far prevented foreigners from being flown out of the north-east African country. The US government had previously made it clear that Americans who were not in Sudan as diplomats or embassy staff could not expect to be taken out of the country.
About a week ago, fighting broke out in Sudan between the country’s two most powerful generals and their units. De facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is also the Army Commander-in-Chief, is fighting with the military against his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, the leader of the powerful paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).