According to media reports, Spain has sent two air force transport planes to evacuate its citizens and some other Europeans and Latin Americans from Sudan to Africa. One of the two military transports of type A400M had already landed in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, the state TV broadcaster RTVE and other Spanish media reported on Friday. A third machine of the same type is ready in Spain. Each of the military aircraft can transport more than 100 people. There was initially no official confirmation.
Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares had previously said during a visit to Berlin that his country’s military planes would be held on hold to fly to the Sudanese capital Khartoum as soon as possible and begin evacuation as soon as the security situation permitted. When that could be the case cannot be said at the moment. Djibouti is about 1,200 kilometers southeast of Khartoum. According to media reports, the federal government wanted to send the Bundeswehr on an evacuation mission to Sudan on Wednesday, but had to call it off because of the ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitaries.
Death of a US Citizen
On Friday, the US State Department confirmed the death of a US citizen in Sudan. Due to the tense situation in the state in north-east Africa, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had already said at a press conference at the US Airbase Ramstein late on Friday afternoon that the US was also preparing for various evacuation options: “We have some troops in the country country dispatched to ensure we have as many options as possible should we be called upon to act.”
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said US President Joe Biden this week approved a plan to move US forces if they were needed to evacuate American diplomats. According to the Pentagon, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley discussed the security of Americans in Sudan in a telephone conversation with Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan late Friday evening. Washington had previously stated that American private individuals in Sudan should not expect a US government-coordinated evacuation from the country. According to Deputy State Department Spokesman Vedant Patel, the government is currently in contact with several hundred US citizens who are in Sudan.
Baerbock: situation “dramatic and absolutely confusing”
According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the federal government is also preparing several options for an evacuation from Sudan. “The situation is absolutely dramatic and absolutely confusing,” said the Green politician on Friday in Berlin after a meeting of the crisis team at the Federal Foreign Office. The number of Germans who reported a desired evacuation is growing daily and is currently in the “lower three-digit range”. The problem is now also the power outages, so that the evacuees can no longer charge their mobile phones and therefore may soon no longer be able to be informed in this way, said a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office.
The army and the paramilitary militia RSF have been fighting for power in Sudan for about a week. On Friday, the army agreed to a three-day ceasefire to allow for the Muslim fast-breaking festival after Ramadan. However, as a Reuters reporter reported, despite the agreed ceasefire, there were again violent exchanges of fire and isolated airstrikes in the capital Khartoum. The capital Khartoum was bombed again on Saturday morning, said a reporter from the German Press Agency on site. Gunshots were also heard. Eyewitnesses reported explosions in Khartoum on Twitter.
In Sudan, de facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is also the supreme commander of the army, is fighting with the military against his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, leader of the powerful paramilitary group RSF. The two have led the country in northeast Africa with around 46 million inhabitants since a joint military coup in 2021. For years, power has been said to be handed over to a civilian government.