Evacuation from Sudan of foreign nationals, diplomats begins during lull in fighting

Saudi diplomats, nationals already back home, US, Britain, France and China to soon evacuate their nationals, diplomats from Khartoum

A cloud of smoke billows over Khartoum, the Sudanese capital where fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary force has raged for a week. AP Photo

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Sudan's military said on Saturday that the evacuation of foreign nationals from war-torn Khartoum has begun, taking advantage of a lull in fighting under a 72-hour truce marking a major Muslim holiday.

In a statement, it said that the United States, Britain, France and China will "within hours" begin the evacuation by air from Khartoum of members of their diplomatic missions and nationals. They will also evacuate embassy staff and nationals of other nations if they request.

The statement said Saudi diplomats and nationals have already left Sudan after they traveled overland to Port Sudan on the Red Sea from which they flew home.

Jordanian nationals will similarly leave Sudan, it added.

News of the evacuations came as residents in Khartoum reported that the intensity of fighting in the city b between the army and a rival paramilitary group dropped significantly on Saturday morning.

There were no signs of a complete halt to the week-old battle in the Sudanese capital, however.

Intermittent explosions rocked the city despite both sides expressing willingness to observe a three-day truce for the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Fitr that began on Friday.

Khartoum residents said the intensity of the fighting fluctuated on Friday, but invariably picked up after quiet spells, with the thud of artillery, heavy gunfire and screaming jet fighters shaking the city.

The city's streets remained largely deserted on Saturday, while shops stayed shut. Residents say they are running out of food as stocks run low, and are also facing widespread cuts in power and water supply.

The World Health Organisation on Friday said 413 people had been killed and 3,551 injured since fighting broke out, but the death toll is believed to be much higher.

Two 24-hour truces declared after fighting broke out on April 15 were ignored, with each side accusing the other of violations.

In an ominous sign, the army on Friday sent its troops on to the streets of Khartoum for the first time since hostilities began. The troops and RSF fighters exchanged gunfire at many locations, but the battles appeared to be concentrated in central Khartoum, not the city's outlying residential areas, residents said.

"I can still hear artillery firing and air strikes, but they are a little less frequent than previous days," Hamza Awad, a 52-year-old physician from Khartoum, told The National on Friday night.

"I can move around in the relative safety of my district, but I cannot go outside it," he said after venturing into the streets of his Al Sahafa neighbourhood to look for food.

Elsewhere in Khartoum, residents were desperately trying to leave the city for the safety of their home villages and towns in nearby provinces, but the continuing fighting and the scarcity of fuel — petrol stations have been closed for a week — meant that not everyone succeeded in fleeing.

The army and the RSF are led by one-time allies Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is better known by the nickname Hemedti. The pair were allies, albeit for political expediency, since they jointly removed Omar Al Bashir from power in April 2019 amid a popular uprising against the dictator's 29-year regime.

They joined forces again to stage a coup in 2021 that upended Sudan's democratic transition and plunged the country into political and economic crises.

They were signatories to a preliminary deal reached in December that provided for the withdrawal of the military from politics, the appointment of a civilian prime minister to steer the country for 24 months until elections and the integration of the RSF into the armed forces.

The signing of a comprehensive deal was delayed twice this month because of differences over the RSF integration, which Gen Dagalo wanted to be done gradually over as many as 10 years. Gen Al Burhan wanted a much shorter timetable, fearing that the RSF would become an even more formidable force if given more time.