Western and other nations escalate plans to evacuate diplomats from Sudan

Western and other nations have intensified increasingly desperate efforts to evacuate diplomats and their dependents from Khartoum, as battles raged in the centre of the Sudanese capital and in its twin city of Omdurman.

With a series of ceasefires failing to hold, the death toll has now passed 420, including 264 civilians, and more than 3,700 have been wounded, according to local and international NGOs. However, most analysts believe the true total of fatalities and injuries in more than nine days of fighting is much higher.

On Sunday the UK successfully evacuated its diplomatic staff and dependents from Khartoum via a complex operation in what officials called “very challenging circumstances”, which involved more than 1,200 military personnel.

“The UK has undertaken a military operation to evacuate British embassy staff from Khartoum, due to escalating violence and threats against foreign diplomats and embassy properties,” a government spokesperson said.

“We thank the armed forces for their bravery in conducting this complex operation under extremely challenging circumstances … The safety of all British nationals in Sudan continues to be our utmost priority.”

The US evacuated diplomats, embassy workers and families from Khartoum on Saturday night, sending Chinook helicopters carrying special forces on Saturday night to evacuate about 70 Americans from a landing zone at the embassy to an undisclosed location in Ethiopia, according to US officials.

On the battered streets of Khartoum there was anger.

“They evacuated their people … the Americans do not care about Sudan … The safety of their people is a priority for them, we should not concentrate on that, we should think of ways to stop the war,” Madji Ebaid, a 61-year-old businessman, said.

Alaa Mustafa, a 33-year-old hospital lab assistant in Omdurman, said the evacuation by western countries showed that at least politicians in London or Washington “cared about their citizens”.

“Our leader might stop fighting but imagine only [to allow] the westerners to leave the country. What about us who are still here? There are so many humanitarian cases, and people who need emergency care. Their bodies are thrown on the streets.”

A woman preparing to evacuate Khartoum for the town of Kosti, the capital of the White Nile state 300km (185 miles) to the south, said she was scared by what the battling forces in the city might do once foreigners had gone.

“The westerners have left … It doesn’t feel OK for us … We don’t know what they will do tomorrow,” the woman, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, said.

The successful operations have increased the pressure on other western nations to get their nationals out of Sudan amid the continued fighting.

On Sunday night, Germany and France said they had each evacuated more than 100 people.

The first of three planned Airbus A400Ms carrying the evacuees “landed safely in Jordan” at around midnight local time (2100 GMT), Germany’s military said, while the first French flight landed in Djibouti, according to an AFP source, after what French officials called a “complicated” rescue operation. Another French flight was on the way, officials added.

Germany’s aircraft were carrying nationals of other countries as well as German citizens, an army spokesperson said.

Reports from Khartoum suggested that a first attempt to evacuate French diplomats had failed when a convoy came under fire, with some passengers injured.

Spain and Canada also evacuated their citizens. The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said that his country’s operations in Sudan had been temporarily suspended. “Our diplomats are safe – they have been extracted and are working from outside the country,” he tweeted.

The Spanish foreign minister said that “Spanish air force planes have just taken off from Khartoum carrying our citizens and diplomats. Other EU and Latin American nationals also onboard.

“We reiterate the call for a ceasefire and resumption of dialogue in Sudan,” José Manuel Albares tweeted.

One big challenge is fighting over Khartoum’s airport, which has sustained significant damage since the conflict broke out last weekend.

The violence has pitted army units loyal to Sudan’s military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is the deputy head of the ruling council. Their power struggle has raised fears of chaos and a humanitarian disaster in the country of 45 million people, Africa’s third largest.

On Sunday, internet and phone services appeared to have collapsed across much of country. Medicine, fuel and food were scarce in much of Khartoum, while a combination of fighting and looting made leaving home to search for essential provisions dangerous.

A new declared truce that was to coincide with the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr collapsed on Saturday. The ceasefire was supposed to allow thousands of Khartoum residents who have been trapped by the fighting to reach safety and visit family during the Muslim holiday of Eid.

“We did not see such a truce,” said Amin al-Tayed from his home near the state television headquarters in Omdurman. He said heavy gunfire and thundering explosions rocked the city. “The battles did not stop,” he said.

In Sunday’s fighting, a senior military official said army and police repelled an RSF attack on Koper prison, where former authoritarian ruler Omar al-Bashir has been imprisoned since his fall from power in 2019. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said a number of prisoners exploited the chaos to flee but al-Bashir and other high-profile inmates were still held in a “highly secure” area. The official said “a few prisoners” were killed or wounded.

Witnesses in Khartoum reported thousands of prisoners either breaking out or freed from the city’s main three prisons and widespread looting of private homes, offices and government facilities.

The owner of one of the few shops still open in Omdurman described thieves on motorbikes snatching handbags from female customers.

“Yesterday, some came in and took stuff from the shop too … The problem is they come in groups and we can’t protect our property. We are just praying for better days to come,” he said.

Both warring factions have said they will help facilitate the evacuation of a number of diplomats and nationals from multiple countries.

On Twitter, Dagalo claimed his forces were ready “to provide the necessary facilities to help citizens and foreign communities pass through to safe places”.

The Greek foreign minister said the country had dispatched aircraft and special forces to its ally Egypt in preparation for an evacuation of 120 Greek and Cypriot nationals from Khartoum. Most of them have sought shelter in recent days at a Greek Orthodox cathedral in the capital, Nikos Dendias said.

The Netherlands sent two air force Hercules C-130 planes and an Airbus A330 to Jordan in advance of a possible rescue mission, while Italy has dispatched military jets to the Gulf of Aden state of Djibouti to prepare for the evacuation of 140 Italian nationals in Sudan, many of whom have already taken refuge in the embassy.

It is unclear if Khartoum’s main airport is usable, even if the fighting around the facility stops long enough to ensure safe passage through nearby war-torn neighbourhoods. A number of civilian aircraft have been destroyed and at least one runway has been badly damaged. Other airports across the country, such as Merowe, 186 miles (300km) north of Khartoum, are thought to have been put out of action by bombardments.

The roads from Khartoum north to Egypt and to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 520 miles (840km) away, offer risky alternatives. Saudi Arabia on Saturday said the kingdom successfully evacuated 157 people, including 91 Saudi nationals and citizens of other countries via Port Sudan, from where a navy ship then ferried the evacuees across the Red Sea to the Saudi port of Jeddah.

Jordan, India and Japan are all also standing by to evacuate citizens but face similar logistic challenges.

The UN is also struggling to extract hundreds of international staff, warning that evacuation by land may be the only option. One UN worker said some UN staff have already left, travelling from Khartoum to Port Sudan or from the south-western region of Darfur into neighbouring Chad.

As throughout nine days of street battles, there are reports of civilians in Khartoum and elsewhere trapped in homes, schools and hospitals, or unable to access basic services. In many areas of Khartoum, informal neighbourhood committees have convened to ensure the distribution of vital supplies to the needy. However, these have limited means and many residents of the city of 8 million have fled, cramming into buses for the risky journey north or west.

The Arqin border crossing with Egypt was crowded with about 30 passenger buses holding at least 55 people each, said Suliman al-Kouni, an Egyptian dental student who fled from Khartoum with dozens of other Egyptian students.

“We travelled 15 hours on land at our own risk,” al-Kouni told the Associated Press by phone. “But many of our friends are still trapped in Sudan.”

Details of the situation outside Khartoum are scarce. Fighting is continuing around the country, especially in the south-west but also in the east.