US begins overland evacuation of US citizens from Sudan
NAIROBI, Kenya — A convoy of buses carrying about 300 Americans left Sudan’s war-torn capital on Friday and embarked on a 525-mile journey to the Red Sea, the United States’ first organized effort to evacuate its citizens from the country .
The convoy was followed by armed U.S. drones hovering high overhead, watching for threats. The United Nations and many countries have also evacuated their citizens by land, after receiving security assurances from warring parties.
It renewed the question of why the United States had taken so long to organize a civilian evacuation from Sudan, home to an estimated 16,000 American citizens, many of whom hold dual citizenship, while allies from the West and the Persian Gulf moved faster and evacuated many more people.
Great Britain has 1,573 people evacuated since Tuesday from an airfield north of Khartoum, most of them British nationals. Germany And France evacuated another 1,700 people by plane. At least 3,000 others from different countries have been evacuated by sea from Port Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Saudi authorities said.
As the US ramps up its evacuation efforts, other countries are already winding down: Britain announced on Friday it would end its airlift at 6 p.m. Saturday, citing a “significant drop” in demand for seats.
The difference could reflect a more cautious US approach to evacuating civilians by air from a chaotic and unpredictable war zone with no defined front lines — a warning that appeared partially justified on Friday when Turkey reported that one of its military jets was under fire. lie down. when it landed at the airport on the outskirts of Khartoum.
The United States has helped American citizens secure seats on flights from Khartoum organized by allied nations, and occasionally on convoys passing through Khartoum to the airport. Other Americans have crossed a border by road on their own and entered Egypt and Ethiopia, joining tens of thousands of Sudanese who have made the same journey.
Asked at a press conference on Friday, before the report of the US-led convoy had become public, why the US government had not conducted the evacuation transport in the same manner as other countries, Vedant Patel, a spokesman for the State Department, said. that it worked closely with partner countries on its efforts. “This is a collective and collaborative effort,” he said.
Mr Patel said several hundred US citizens have left Sudan since the conflict began.
Still, the line of rented buses departing Khartoum on Friday night came from a luxury golf course near the now-abandoned US embassy, five full days after 72 US diplomats were airlifted directly from Sudan by helicopter.
The delay between that evacuation, a complex nighttime mission led by SEAL team 6 commandos, and the move to facilitate the departure of US citizens has led to numerous negative comparisons to the efforts of other nations.
The United States initially said it would not evacuate US citizens or their families, citing demand significantly lower than other Western countries. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Monday that only “dozens” of US citizens had expressed a desire to leave.
Since then, other U.S. officials have said they don’t have a good estimate of how many U.S. citizens will want to leave at any given time, because that shifts as the circumstances of the conflict change.
The war between the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan, entered its 14th day on Friday. At least 512 people have been killed and 4,200 others injured, the World Health Organization estimates, though the real toll is expected to be much higher.
The scale of fighting has eased somewhat from both sides in recent days partly respected a ceasefire, allowing evacuations to take place. Under international pressure, the two sides agreed to extend the ceasefire for another 72 hours from early Friday.
But an explosion of violence in Khartoum hours later, triggered by a spate of airstrikes, gunfire and explosions that shook the city to its foundations, raised fears that a return to widespread fighting was imminent.
“What I see is thick smoke. What I hear is shelling and gunshots,” said Ahmad Mahmoud, a Sudanese resident of Khartoum who witnessed a massive bombing of the Burri neighborhood on Friday. “Khartoum is becoming extremely unsafe.”
Fighting also continued in the western region of Darfur, particularly in the city of el-Geneina, aid agencies said.
In an effort to track US citizens in Sudan, the State Department has set up a “crisis recording.” website on which anyone in the world can register to get information, although it is intended for US citizens and family members in Sudan.
A person who registers on the site is taken to a page where they can tell U.S. officials what they plan to do: stay in Sudan, leave on their own, or try to leave, but possibly with help. They can also tell the US government that they have already left Sudan. By Friday morning, fewer than 5,000 people had registered.
For those seeking assistance exiting, U.S. officials then try to match them with a mode of transportation and a seat if possible. The two main departure routes at the moment are British airlifts from an airport near Khartoum and overland convoys to Port Sudan, where ships then take people out via the Red Sea.
However, that system means that options for evacuation are largely limited to citizens with access to electricity and an internet connection – which are far from guaranteed. Many residents say they have no power, and Sudan’s telecommunications networks, which were remarkably resilient in the first week of fighting, are beginning to fail.
The overland route to Port Sudan is slow and tiring, especially for evacuees exhausted by two weeks of intense violence in densely populated urban areas that threaten to plunge Sudan, Africa’s third largest country, into full-blown civil war.
But US officials say they prefer the land route to Wadi Saeedna airport, just outside Khartoum, which they consider riskier. British commandos are currently monitoring that location, but dangers lurk nearby: Turkey said on Friday that a C-130 plane flying there for an evacuation had been fired upon with light weapons.
The plane landed safely and no one was injured, the Turkish Defense Ministry said said a message on Twitter. The Sudanese military later released a photo showing the bullet holes in the hull of the Turkish airframe, blaming the Rapid Support Forces – a charge the RSF denied.
On the way to Port Sudan, the US military can track convoys with drones.
The evacuations also sometimes involve complicated personal conflicts, some exacerbated by bureaucratic requirements, which can present families with major decisions.
When Sukaina Kamal received an email from the US government stating that the overland convoy would depart on Friday, it was faced with a dilemma. While Ms. Kamal’s three children are US citizens, she and her husband are not – nor is her elderly mother for whom she cares. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents were allowed on the convoy.
In addition, Ms. Kamal and her family are far from the area where the US convoy was supposed to depart: since last week, when heavy fighting spread over Khartoum, they have been living in Wad Madani, a town about 100 miles to the southeast.
Mr Patel said many US citizens in Sudan hold dual US-Sudanese citizenship and have built their lives in the country, making it difficult to leave. “This is a very personal and difficult decision,” he said.
US officials report that some people say they want to leave, only to change their mind. Others consider it too unsafe to go to a pick-up point for transportation to the airport or convoy departure point. Still, others tell U.S. officials they will only leave under certain circumstances.
However, the majority of people fleeing the war zone are Sudanese citizens, who continue to pour out of the country in all directions. According to the UN, some 20,000 refugees have already crossed the western border into Chad, while another 16,000 traveled across the northern border from Sudan to Egyptsaid the Egyptian foreign ministry.
Declan Walsh reported from Nairobi, Kenya, Eric Schmitt from Seattle, Edward Wong from Washington, and Abdi Latif Dahir from Amsterdam. Cora Engelbrecht contributed reporting from London and Adam Entous from Washington.