The United States military evacuated American diplomats and their families from Sudan over the weekend as fighting between rival military factions threatens to plunge the country into a civil war, the White House confirmed Saturday evening.
Hundreds are dead, including one American, and thousands more have been wounded as a result of the fighting between Sudanese Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan’s military forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Both sides joined forces in 2021 to overthrow a coalition government, but the alliance soured over disputes related to the integration of paramilitary fighters into the regular forces. Both factions failed to uphold a planned 72-hour ceasefire, which was set to begin Friday for the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday.
US DIPLOMATS CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE AS SUDAN’S GENERALS TURN ON EACH OTHER
U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed news of the successful evacuation in a statement Saturday, shortly after Pentagon officials began verifying reports about the mission.
“Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract U.S. Government personnel from Khartoum,” the president said. “I am proud of the extraordinary commitment of our Embassy staff, who performed their duties with courage and professionalism and embodied America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan. I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety.”
Biden credited the support provided by Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia as “critical to the success of our operation.” He did not, however, credit the RSF, which said upon completion of the operation early Sunday local time that it assisted with the evacuation. He instead referred to both sides as “belligerent parties” who were causing “tragic violence.”
The president also said the U.S. was “temporarily suspending operations” at the Sudanese embassy, which is located in the capital city of Khartoum, while vowing that “our commitment to the Sudanese people and the future they want for themselves is unending.”
U.S. officials in the country had already been placed under a shelter-in-place order and were not able travel within the country prior to the evacuation, while the Khartoum International Airport and its border with Chad were both closed after renewed fighting broke out last week.
Talk of possible diplomatic evacuations grew as the situation on the ground continued deteriorating. The Sudanese army said Saturday that evacuations for diplomatic staff from the U.S., China, France, and the United Kingdom were being coordinated in concert with those governments and that flights would begin taking off with those individuals on board in the coming hours.
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The army did not take credit for being involved in coordinating the U.S. evacuations immediately after they were completed.
Mike Brest contributed to this report.
