European countries, China, and others scrambled to evacuate hundreds of their residents from Khartoum on Monday amid a break in combat between the army and a paramilitary group.
The April 15 military-RSF conflict caused a humanitarian disaster and killed 420 people.
Last week, hundreds of diplomats, humanitarian workers, students, and their families were besieged in a conflict zone with millions of Sudanese without essential amenities and confined in their houses.
Fighter planes have bombarded the capital, the major airport has been fighting ground, and artillery barrages have rendered passage in and out of Africa’s biggest city dangerous. Five humanitarian workers have been slain and diplomats attacked.
Despite international pressure, the two sides have not observed a brief ceasefire. Over the weekend, violence eased sufficiently for the US to evacuate diplomatic workers by military helicopter, prompting other nations to evacuate.
One evacuation convoy carrying Qatari embassy workers and another carrying French people, one of whom was wounded, were attacked.
France and Germany evacuated 700 individuals on Monday, without specifying their nationalities. Evacuees arrived in Berlin by German air force jet early Monday.
In Khartoum, Spanish diplomats and people are evacuated by military jet and cars.
Several nations flew people out of Khartoum on military aircraft from Djibouti, while others drove them to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 800 km (500 miles) away. Some sailed to Saudi Arabia from there.
Indonesia reported that about 500 residents had been evacuated to the port and was awaiting transit to Jeddah across the Red Sea.
China, Denmark, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden also evacuated people, while Japan prepared to deploy a Djibouti evacuation team.
A diplomatic source reported a 65-vehicle convoy of 700 foreign UN, NGO, and embassy personnel and their relatives evacuated from Khartoum to Port Sudan on Sunday.
The source claimed foreign personnel from Darfur, where conflict has increased, are being evacuated to Chad and South Sudan.
Sudan’s war has shuttered most hospitals and cut water and power. The World Food Programme, which feeds 25% of the population, has halted operations in the nation after three relief workers were killed.
Four years after ousting longtime despot Omar al-Bashir, the army, and RSF attempted a coup in 2021 but fell out amid talks to create a civilian administration.
Their rivalry has elevated the potential of a larger confrontation involving international forces.
According to a Monday U.N. statement, people have left violence in Darfur’s three states, Blue Nile State on the Ethiopia-South Sudan border, and North Kordofan State southwest of Khartoum.
