Khartoum, Sudan—US troops swooped in on helicopters to evacuate embassy staff from Sudan’s battle-torn capital, President Joe Biden said Sunday, as other nations sought to help their citizens flee deadly fighting between rival generals.
France and Turkey on Sunday also launched evacuation operations from the chaos-torn northeast African nation, where ongoing fighting has entered its second week.
Just over 100 US special operations troops took part in the rescue to extract fewer than 100 people, which saw three Chinook helicopters fly from Djibouti, staying on the ground in Khartoum for less than an hour.France’s foreign ministry said Sunday a “rapid evacuation operation” had begun, and that European citizens and those from “allied partner countries” would also be assisted, without giving further details.
Heavy fighting broke out on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces .Daglo’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed fighters unleashed in Darfur by former strongman leader Omar al-Bashir, where they were accused of war crimes.Khartoum’s airport has been the site of heavy fighting with aircraft destroyed on the runway, and is under the control of the RSF.
Other foreign countries have said they are preparing for the potential evacuation of thousands more of their nationals, with South Korea and Japan deploying forces to nearby countries, and the European Union weighing a similar move. “Pushing for safe passages to evacuate internationals without simultaneously pushing to end the war will be terrible”, said researcher Hamid Khalafallah.
Fighting has broken out elsewhere across Sudan, Africa’s third biggest nation and roughly three times the size of France.
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