The country’s Foreign Ministry said today that France has launched an operation to expel its citizens and diplomatic staff from Sudan as the fighting is in its second week.

European citizens and others from “allied countries” will also be expelled, the French ministry added without specifying.

According to a diplomatic source, the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “offered security guarantees” for the operation. According to the same source, about 250 French citizens live in Sudan.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday evening that employees of the U.S. embassy in Khartoum were evacuated from the Sudanese capital following an operation by U.S. military special forces.

Biden specifically thanked the governments of Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia for supporting the operation.

For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken noted that the US temporarily suspended the activities of its embassy in Khartoum after the safe removal of its employees and their relatives.

Blinken explained that employees were evacuated due to an “unacceptable risk” to their safety.

How the business was organized

The operation began at 3:00 pm Saturday (4:00 pm local Greek time) with about 100 US Special Forces troops and three Ch-47 Chinook helicopters. Thanks to him, “a little less than 100” people were taken out of Khartoum, including several foreign diplomats, John Bass, a senior State Department official, told reporters.

“We have removed all American personnel and their relatives from the embassy in Khartoum,” he said, noting that a significant number of Sudanese officials remain in the Sudanese capital to support the embassy.

The helicopters took off from Djibouti and made a refueling stop in Ethiopia before heading to Khartoum, where they stayed for less than an hour, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant General Douglas Sims said.

Also yesterday, Saudi Arabia announced that it had evacuated more than 150 people from Sudan to the port of Jeddah.

The evacuation was carried out by the country’s naval forces with the support of other armed forces, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said, announcing the “safe arrival” of 91 Saudi Arabian citizens and about 66 citizens of 12 other countries.

Jordan will use the same route while other foreign nationals have begun evacuating from a Sudanese port on the Red Sea.

Japanese network TBS reported that UN staff, including Japanese citizens, and their families would be evacuated from the war-torn country today.

Heavy fighting has trapped large numbers of people in Khartoum, the airport is out of service and some roads have become impassable.

The UN and foreign countries called on the belligerents — the Sudanese regular army under the command of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the DTI paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedin — to respect the ceasefire and establish safe passages for civilians, but also for delivery help.

With the airport closed and the airspace unsafe, thousands of foreigners, including embassy staff, aid workers and students, in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan are unable to leave.

Contact N. Dendias with Borel, Tsuni and K. Floros to help the Greeks in Sudan

In the context of ongoing efforts to assist the Greeks in Sudan and coordinate efforts for a possible operation to evacuate them when conditions permit, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias contacted the EU High Representative twice on Saturday. issues of foreign and security policy, Joseph Borel.

Recall, Nikos Dendias held a telephone conversation with the EU High Representative on Friday after sending his letter about the “extremely alarming situation in Sudan.”

In his letter to the EU High Representative on Friday, the Foreign Minister noted his particular concern for the safety of the Greeks, including the two injured and other European citizens in Sudan, and also referred to our country’s efforts to protect them and their release when conditions permit, according to diplomatic sources. The Minister for Foreign Affairs stressed the importance of the coordination of the EU member states and the main role of the High Representative in the context of the efforts for the immediate and safe release of the Greeks, as well as other European citizens.

In addition, he informed about the position of Greece on the need for an immediate ceasefire and a reconciliatory dialogue between all the warring parties to ensure the stability and unity of Sudan.

Finally, it emphasizes the paramount importance of Sudan’s security and territorial integrity to security in the Horn of Africa.

After talking with Josep Borel, Nikos Dendias also talked on Saturday with the US Ambassador to Greece, George Tsunis, and with the Chief of the National Defense General Staff, Konstantinos Floros. The focus was on helping the Greeks in Sudan and efforts to free them.

Fear of the future

Western countries are expected to send planes out of Djibouti to evacuate their citizens, although the Sudanese military has indicated that airports in Khartoum and Nyala, Darfur’s largest city, are experiencing problems and it is not clear when this will be possible.

The army and DTY did not respect the ceasefire that had been declared almost daily since April 15, when fighting began.

Clashes erupted yesterday Saturday despite a three-day truce announced on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. One side accused the other of violating the ceasefire.

“I have no problem with the truce,” Hamedi told Al-Arabiya TV late last night. The army “didn’t respect her. If she respects her, we will respect her too,” he added.

Residents of Khartoum and its neighboring towns of Omdurman and Bahri said airstrikes were carried out near state television and fighting broke out in several areas, including near army headquarters.

A resident of Bahri said that there has been no running water and electricity in the city for a week, air strikes are frequent: “We are in for a big battle. We are terrified of what will happen next,” he said, adding later: “It has begun.”

Television footage showed thick black smoke rising from Khartoum airport.

Meanwhile, NetBlocks announced today that the Internet connection in Sudan has been almost completely broken. “Real-time network data shows an almost complete lack of Internet connectivity in Khartoum,” the report said.

Humanitarian risk

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for the opening of safe corridors for the passage of aid workers and aid workers.

“We need ports of entry through which specialized trauma personnel and medical equipment can pass,” said Abdullah Hussain, the organization’s head of operations in Sudan.

The Sudanese Doctors’ Association said more than two-thirds of hospitals in conflict-affected areas were out of service, and 32 hospitals were forcibly evacuated by soldiers or caught in the crossfire.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that 413 people have died and 3,551 have been injured since the clashes began. Among the dead were at least five humanitarian workers.

Outside of Khartoum, the most violent conflicts have been in Darfur, Sudan’s poorest province, where inter-ethnic conflicts that erupted in 2003 left 300,000 dead and 2.7 million displaced.

The UN said yesterday that the offices of the World Food Program (WFP) in Nyala were looted, with at least 10 agency trucks and another six food trucks stolen.

At present, there is no indication that either side will win anytime soon or that they are open to negotiations. The army controls the air force, while DTY forces are dispersed throughout urban areas.

Burhan said yesterday that “we all need to sit down together like Sudanese and find the right path to return to hope and life” in the most conciliatory statement he has ever made.

In Sudan, Africa’s third-largest gold producer and one of the world’s poorest, health services have been in decline for decades, and a third of the country’s 45 million people suffer from hunger.

The suspension of the activities of most humanitarian organizations will exacerbate the situation. According to experts, the conflict can also go beyond Sudan.

Source: APE-ME, AFP, REUTERS.