KHARTOUM (Reuters) -The conflict between Sudan’s army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has triggered a rush to extract foreign diplomats and citizens.
Several countries have evacuated nationals by air, while some have gone via Port Sudan on the Red Sea, about 800 km (500 miles) by road from Khartoum.
This is the status of some countries’ efforts:
GERMANY
As of Tuesday morning, a German evacuation mission had brought a total of 500 people from more than 30 countries to safety, including Belgian, British, Dutch, Jordanian and U.S. citizens as well as Germans. Berlin said its flights would end on Tuesday.
FRANCE
France has evacuated more than 500 people from Sudan, comprising more than 200 French citizens as well as Americans, Britons and others, President Emmanuel Macron told his government. He said a French commando had been wounded in crossfire during the evacuation, but was in stable condition.
Paris has also sent a warship to Port Sudan to help pick up evacuees, two diplomatic sources said.
ITALY
Italian military planes flying from Djibouti evacuated 83 Italians and 13 others overnight, including children and the Italian ambassador.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said some Italian NGO workers and missionaries had decided to stay in Sudan, while 19 others had been taken to Egypt two days ago.
BRITAIN
Britain said it had begun a “large-scale” evacuation of its nationals on Tuesday, with priority given to families with children, the elderly and the infirm. Its first evacuation flight left and two more were expected overnight.
The government estimates there are about 4,000 Britons in Sudan. It evacuated its diplomats and their families on Saturday.
Cyprus said it had activated a humanitarian rescue mechanism at Britain’s request to let third countries use it for reception and repatriation of foreign citizens evacuated from Sudan. Cyprus is home to two large British military bases.
NETHERLANDS
About 100 Dutch nationals have been evacuated from Sudan since Sunday, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said.
Half left on four Dutch evacuation flights to Jordan, which also carried about 70 people from 14 other countries.
The Netherlands aims to evacuate a total of around 150 Dutch nationals, and has supplied two military planes to the international effort, which are also available for other nationalities.
UNITED STATES
U.S. forces evacuated American and some foreign diplomats on Saturday.
Washington said on Monday that several dozen Americans were travelling overland in a U.N.-led convoy to Port Sudan, and that dozens more had expressed an interest in leaving. It said it was positioning naval assets to assist evacuations if necessary.
RUSSIA
Russia has not yet announced any evacuation of its embassy or its nationals from Khartoum. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russians in Sudan were in close contact with Moscow.
“Cooperation and consultations are going on round the clock, and various possibilities are being examined. For now, no decision has been taken.”
JAPAN
All Japanese people who wished to leave have been evacuated, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Forty-five left on Monday night on a Japanese military flight, and eight others left with the help of France and other groups, he said.
SWITZERLAND
Switzerland has already shut its embassy and evacuated all Swiss staff and their families.
CHINA
China said most Chinese nationals have been safely evacuated in groups to neighbouring countries. The defence ministry deployed naval ships to pick up and evacuate citizens on Wednesday.
The foreign ministry said between Tuesday and Thursday, nearly 800 people have been transferred by sea and more than 300 have travelled to neighbouring countries of Sudan by land. There have been no casualty reports so far, the ministry said.
Chinese consulate-general in Jeddah issued a notice on Wednesday advising citizens who planned to evacuate to Saudi Arabia to enter through the Jeddah Islamic Port.
CANADA
Canada will deploy about 200 troops to coordinate evacuations from war-torn Sudan, Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand said on Wednesday, with Ottawa adding that about 180 Canadians have been evacuated.
There are about 1,800 Canadians in Sudan, out of which about 700 have requested assistance from the foreign ministry, according to the Canadian government.
UKRAINE
Ukraine said it had rescued 87 of its citizens – most of them pilots, aircraft technicians and their families – among a total of 138 civilians, who also included citizens of Georgia and Peru.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa said it expected the last 12 of its nationals known to be in Sudan to have left on Tuesday.
(Compiled by Kevin Liffey; Additional reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Nick Macfie, William Maclean)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.
Source: The Print
