Global Courant 2023-04-30 16:02:44
Armed drones guided hundreds of Americans on Saturday as they escape war-torn Sudan amid fierce fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary group.
The unmanned aerial vehicles flew above a convoy of buses as they made the 500-mile journey from the major African capital of Khartoum to Port Sudan on the country’s west coast, a US official familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News. Several hundred Americans were aboard at least a dozen buses, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
They added that the US government is likely to release more exact figures on the number of evacuees in the convoy once the Americans have safely reached the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.
Separately, a Pentagon spokesman said that “The Department of Defense has deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in support of air and land evacuation routes, which Americans are using.”
Sabrina Singh said the US “moved naval assets within the region to provide needed support along the coast”. She added that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had approved “a request for help from the State Department to support the safe departure”.
Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said on Saturday that “intense negotiations” by the US with the support of “regional and international partners” created the conditions that allowed for the evacuation of both civilians and non-citizens, including the operation on Saturday.
Smoke rises over the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, Sudan, on Saturday.Marwan Ali/AP
Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday that US nationals were among the nearly 1,900 foreign evacuees who arrived by ship at the port of Jeddah on Saturday. It was not stated how many Americans were on board.
The evacuation came as fighting continued despite the extension of a fragile truce between the country’s two top generals, Sudan’s de facto ruler General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and his former deputy, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo – a former camel trader turned general known as Hemedti. who leads the Rapid Security Forces, a rival paramilitary group.
The pair previously worked together to coordinate the coup that overthrew the government in October 2021. But their alliance fell apart in spectacular fashion over how to manage the transition to civilian government and a disagreement over how to integrate the Rapid Security Forces into the government. armed forces and which authority should oversee the process.
The bombings, gunfights and sniper fire in densely populated areas have affected civilian infrastructure, including many hospitals. Khartoum, a city of about 5 million people, has been transformed into a frontline.
In some areas in and around the capital, residents told the Associated Press that shops were reopening and normalcy was gradually returning as the scale of fighting eased after the shaky truce. But in other areas, terrified residents told the AP that explosions thundered around them and fighters looted homes.
Several ceasefire attempts have so far failed.
Miller of the State Department said the US “continued to call on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to end the fighting that endangers civilians.” He added that Americans are encouraged not to travel to Sudan.
There was good news, however, as the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that a “much-needed” 8-tonne medical shipment consisting of surgical dressings, anesthetics and other medical supplies arrived in Port Sudan on Sunday.
It added that a second plane carrying additional supplies and emergency services was on its way to land.
Abigail Williams and Associated Press contributed.
