Sudan’s sudden slide into conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary on April 15 stranded thousands of foreigners, including diplomats and aid workers.
Several countries have launched operations to evacuate their diplomatic staff and other nationals, and some efforts appear to be via Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which is about 650km (400 miles) northeast of Khartoum but is about 800km (500 miles) away by road.
Here’s the latest on the evacuations:
Belgium
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said on Twitter that her country was conducting operations in cooperation with France and the Netherlands to evacuate European nationals “as quickly as possible”.
Lahbib also called on people in Sudan who have not yet contacted their diplomatic services to do so quickly. “All our services are mobilized to help them,” she said.
Canada
Canada said it was suspending operations in Sudan and Canadian diplomats would temporarily work from a safe location outside the country, without commenting on evacuation efforts.
France
Two French planes carrying people of several nationalities have landed in Djibouti.
The warring army and RSF each accused the other of attacking a French convoy in Khartoum, raising questions on which body the French government was coordinating with.
The army said the RSF fired on the convoy, wounding a French national, while the RSF said it was attacked by aircraft during the evacuation, which wounded a French national, and it had returned the convoy to its starting point.
France’s Foreign Ministry has not commented on the reported attack or injury.
A French Air Force aircraft that picked up evacuees of different nationalities from Sudan arrives in Djibouti – undated handout released April 23, 2023 [French President Emmanuel Macron via Twitter/Handout via Reuters]
Germany
A German air force plane with 101 people evacuated from Sudan arrived in Berlin early on Monday, according to a military source speaking to Reuters news agency.
The plane had brought the evacuees from the Al Azrak base in Jordan, where German military planes flying out of Sudan are landing en route to evacuation to Berlin.
In total, the German military has flown out 313 people from Sudan so far, the source said.
Italy
Italy said its nationals would be taken out of Sudan on Sunday night along with some people from Vatican City, Switzerland and other European countries.
Italy’s foreign minister said some 140 Italians would be evacuated from Sudan, plus around 60 people from other countries.
Jordan
Jordan said it had sent four military planes to evacuate about 260 nationals. On Saturday, it said it was evacuating from Port Sudan.
Jordanian citizens and other nationals who were evacuated from Sudan arrive at Marka Military Airport, in Amman, Jordan[Alaa Al Sukhni/Reuters]
Kuwait
Kuwait said all citizens wishing to return home had arrived in Jeddah.
The Netherlands
A first group of Dutch citizens has been evacuated from Sudan, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Sunday.
Hoekstra said a “handful” of Dutch people had managed to leave Khartoum on a French plane, in what he said had been “a very complex operation” carried out with the help of France, Germany and other countries.
The minister said he hoped a larger group would be able to leave on Sunday night, using two military planes the Netherlands sent to Jordan last week to help with evacuation efforts.
A total of about 150 Dutch citizens have requested evacuation, the Dutch government said in a letter to parliament on Sunday.
Russia
Moscow’s ambassador in Khartoum told Russian state media that 140 out of roughly 300 Russians in Sudan had said they wanted to leave.
Evacuation plans were made but were still impossible to implement because they involve crossing front lines, the ambassador said.
He added that there were about 15 people, including a woman and child, stuck in a Russian Orthodox church close to heavy fighting in Khartoum.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it had evacuated 91 Saudi citizens from Port Sudan to Jeddah, along with 66 nationals from several other “friendly and brotherly countries”.
Saudi citizens and airline staff arrive at Jeddah Port after being evacuated by ship from Sudan [Saudi Ministry of Defence/Handout via Reuters]
South Korea
South Korea said on Friday that it was sending a military aircraft to evacuate 25 citizens in Sudan.
Spain
Spain’s government announced Sunday that it had flown out around one hundred people from war-hit Sudan, including 30 Spanish citizens and 70 others from Europe and Latin America.
A foreign ministry statement said a military aircraft had left Khartoum shortly before 11pm (21:00 GMT) bound for Djibouti.
Among the other nationalities flown out were people from Argentina, Colombia, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Mexico, Venezuela and Sudan, the statement added.
Sweden
The Swedish government has agreed to send a unit of up to 400 armed soldiers to support evacuation efforts in Sudan.
The deployment will be coordinated with other countries and will evacuate other foreign nationals as well as Swedes who are trapped in the country.
Details about the deployment were unclear, but the government hinted that the unit could set off for Sudan in the next 24 hours.
Switzerland
Switzerland has closed its embassy in Khartoum and evacuated staff and their families, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Twitter.
“This was made possible thanks to a collaboration with our partners, in particular France,” the ministry said in a tweet on Sunday evening. It did not say how many people were evacuated.
United Kingdom
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said British diplomats have all been evacuated from Sudan.
“UK armed forces have completed a complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families from Sudan, amid a significant escalation in violence and threats to embassy staff,” he wrote on Twitter.
“We are continuing to pursue every avenue to end the bloodshed in Sudan and ensure the safety of British nationals remaining in the country.”
Sunak also called for both sides “to lay down their arms and implement an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
United States
US special forces evacuated all US government personnel and their dependents, along with a few diplomats from other countries, from the embassy using helicopters that flew from a base in Djibouti and refuelled in Ethiopia. They were not fired on during the evacuation.
“Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract US government personnel from Khartoum,” President Joe Biden said on Sunday.
He thanked authorities in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia for their assistance in the evacuation mission.
The operation evacuated fewer than 100 people, US officials told reporters. About 100 US troops in three MH-47 helicopters carried out the operation.
The embassy has suspended operations due to security risks but local staff remain to support it.
Washington does not plan to coordinate an evacuation of other US citizens in Sudan but is looking at options to help them leave.
Smoke rises from buildings during clashes between the RSF and the army in Khartoum [Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters] Several countries have launched operations to evacuate their diplomatic staff and other nationals from Sudan.
