US embassy staffers were airlifted from Sudan early yesterday, as forces loyal to rival generals battled for control of Africa’s third-largest nation for a ninth day amid fading hopes for de-escalation.
The warring sides said they were helping coordinate the evacuation of foreigners, although continued exchanges of fire in Sudan’s capital undermined those claims.
A senior official of US President Joe Biden’s administration official said that US troops are carrying out the precarious evacuation of US embassy staffers.
Photo: AP
The troops who airlifted the staff out of Khartoum have safely left Sudanese airspace, a second US official confirmed.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, which has been battling the Sudanese army, said that the US rescue mission involved six aircraft and that it had coordinated evacuation efforts with the US.
The US denied the group helped the evacuation.
“You may have seen some assertions in social media in recent hours, that the Rapid Security Forces somehow coordinated with us and supported this operation. That was not the case,” US Undersecretary of State for Management John Bass said. “They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation.”
The RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, said it is cooperating with all diplomatic missions and that it is committed to a three-day ceasefire that was declared at sundown on Friday.
Earlier, Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he would facilitate the evacuation of US, British, Chinese and French citizens and diplomats from Sudan after speaking with the leaders of several countries that had requested help.
French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre yesterday said that France was organizing the evacuation of its embassy staff, French citizens in Sudan and citizens of allied countries.
She said that France was organizing the operation “in connection with all the involved parties, as well as with our European partners and allies.”
However, the situation on the ground remains volatile. Most major airports have become battlegrounds and movement out of the capital has proven intensely dangerous. The two rivals have dug in, signaling they would resume the fighting after the declared three-day truce.
Questions have swirled over how the mass rescues of foreign citizens would unfold, with Sudan’s main international airport closed and millions of people sheltering indoors.
As battles between the Sudanese army and the powerful paramilitary group rage in and around Khartoum, including in residential areas, foreign countries have struggled to repatriate their citizens — many trapped in their homes as food supplies dwindle.
The White House would not confirm the Sudanese military’s announcement.
“We have made very clear to both sides that they are responsible for ensuring the protection of civilians and noncombatants,” the US National Security Council said.
On Friday, the US said it had no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation of the estimated 16,000 Americans trapped in Sudan.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS