Washington, D.C., US: According to US President Mr. Joe Biden, the US military has evacuated the staff of the United States embassy and their families from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, which has been ravaged by war. The ongoing conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, has resulted in hundreds of fatalities and thousands of injuries and has now entered its second week.
“On my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract US Government personnel from Khartoum,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) declared that it had collaborated with a US military operation involving six aircraft to evacuate US diplomats and their families from the country. This announcement came hours before.
Mr. Biden’s statement conveyed his appreciation for the exceptional expertise of the US military personnel who carried out the operation. He also acknowledged the assistance of Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia in facilitating the evacuation process.
As per the two US officials who were familiar with the operation, the embassy personnel were transported by air to an undisclosed location in Ethiopia. The Associated Press news agency reported that the evacuation covered approximately 70 US citizens.
Following the evacuation of the embassy staff, the US government has announced the indefinite closure of its mission in Khartoum. Additionally, the White House has declared that it currently has no intentions to organize a government-led evacuation for the approximately 16,000 private US citizens registered with the embassy as residing in Sudan.
The initially reported rescue of civilians from Sudan took place when over 150 individuals from different countries arrived in Saudi Arabia to seek refuge. Several foreign governments have declared their readiness to evacuate thousands more of their citizens from Sudan, despite the closure of the country’s primary airport. The continued violence has resulted in the deaths of hundreds and injuries to thousands, with the population struggling to cope with scarcities of electricity and food.
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