Biden confirms rescue of US diplomats by special forces amid fighting in Sudan.
"Today, under my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to evacuate United States government personnel," said US President Joe Biden.
RFI - The United States withdrew its diplomatic team from Khartoum, where intense fighting entered its second week, in a helicopter operation "without incident" ordered by President Joe Biden. France, China and the United Kingdom are also organizing the rescue of their embassy staff and civilians in Sudan. An initial action, evacuating more than 150 foreigners, was also announced this Saturday (22).
"Today, under my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to evacuate United States government personnel," Biden said in a statement Saturday night, also calling for an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" to end these "senseless" acts of violence.
According to the press release, the American leader especially thanked Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia for their support in the operation.
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, indicated that this decision to withdraw American personnel was taken due to the "unacceptable risk" that the situation represents to embassy staff.
The operation involved three CH-47 Chinook helicopters and allowed the evacuation of "just under one hundred" people, including several foreign diplomats, reported John Bass, a senior State Department official.
The helicopters left Djibouti and then stopped in Ethiopia before heading to Khartoum, where they remained for less than an hour, added a Pentagon official, Lieutenant General Douglass Sims. "We were able to get in and out without incident," he added.
"Coordinated" operation
Before Washington's official announcement, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries in Sudan had claimed to have "coordinated" with the United States the withdrawal of American embassy staff from Khartoum. But John Bass rejected any indication that the operation was "coordinated" with the RSF and stated that it was "conducted exclusively" by US special forces.
The complexity of the operation began with bringing together, in recent days, all the diplomatic personnel scattered throughout Khartoum in a single location. The withdrawal operation, prepared since the beginning of the week, concerned only government officials and not American citizens in Sudan, of which there were hundreds.
Given the security conditions, "we do not foresee coordinating a government-level evacuation of other citizens for the time being," added John Bass, emphasizing that American authorities are intensifying contacts with their nationals, advising them to seek safety.
The United States sent troops to Djibouti, a small, stable country in the Horn of Africa about 1,1 km southeast of Khartoum, late in the week to facilitate the withdrawal of its embassy staff.
Blinken has increased diplomatic exchanges in recent days, holding at least two talks this week with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and his rival Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as "Hemedti," as well as with the African Union.
Civilian evacuation
Leaving Khartoum is also the order of the day for hundreds of foreigners whom other embassies are trying to repatriate as quickly as possible, reports RFI's special envoy to the Sudanese capital, Eiiott Brachet. Both belligerents say they are ready to facilitate the evacuation of foreigners, but the operations promise to be delicate, as both generals have repeatedly proven incapable of stopping the fighting.
In a first large-scale operation, led on Saturday by Saudi Arabia, more than 150 civilians of various nationalities managed to leave Sudan. These included Saudis and nationals from 12 other countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Burkina Faso, as well as India and Pakistan.
The evacuated individuals were transported in a convoy of vehicles to the city of Port Sudan. They then crossed the Red Sea aboard Saudi ships. On Saturday, five ships arrived in Jeddah, a Saudi Arabian port city. A total of 91 Saudi citizens and 66 nationals from "brotherly countries" were evacuated. "Diplomats and international officials," specified the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Images from a Saudi television channel show women and children displaying the green flag of Saudi Arabia aboard one of these ships. The crew of a Saudi plane that was hit by gunfire at the start of the conflict is also among those rescued, reports RFI's correspondent in the Gulf region, Nicolas Keraudren.
"Everything that is possible"
The Sudanese army claims that four countries are also preparing to withdraw their diplomats and nationals using their own military aircraft: in addition to the United States, France, China, and the United Kingdom, where the government claims to be doing "everything possible," while the British on the ground, threatened by the fighting, accuse the authorities of abandoning them.
The Minister of State for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, acknowledges an "extremely worrying situation for British citizens trapped by the fighting," and states that the authorities are "preparing for a wide range of eventualities."
Violent fighting has pitted the Sudanese army against FAR paramilitaries in Khartoum for over a week, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries and displacements.