Thousands flee Sudan fighting as countries pull out diplomats

Fighting across Sudan intensified into Monday, driving thousands of people from their homes and speeding up evacuations of diplomats and foreign nationals from the chaos.

At the weekend, the UK and US militaries airlifted their diplomats to safety, with the US ferrying consular staff in MH-47 Chinook helicopters.

Thousands of American and British citizens, mostly dual nationals, are said to remain.

Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Greece, Ireland and Jordan are among the other countries who’ve organised rescue efforts. Ghana said it’s working to evacuate its citizens through Ethiopia.

Clashes continued for a 10th day in the North African country, with residents of the capital, Khartoum, contending with a sharp increase in prices of essential items, attacks that are closing health facilities and shortages of water, medicine, food and fuel.

The country remains largely offline amid an internet blackout, with connectivity at only 2 per cent of normal levels, according to global internet monitor NetBlocks.

Civilians are being displaced by violence in Khartoum and in six of Sudan’s 18 states, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report late Sunday. “Cross-border movements from Sudan to Chad, Egypt and South Sudan have been observed,” it said.

The conflict erupted in Sudan on April 15, the culmination of a long-simmering struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The fighting upended plans for a power-sharing government that was supposed to lead the nation of about 45 million to democratic elections after a 2021 coup.

Sitting at the crossroads of the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan has drawn interest from foreign powers including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which have each backed the rival generals leading the fight — military boss Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Western powers have dangled billions of dollars in frozen aid in a push for a return of civilian rule in a country coveted by Russia and China for its strategic Red Sea coastline and mineral resources.

The violence has left at least 427 people dead and more than 3,700 injured, according to the UN. It’s unclear which side controls strategic locations in Khartoum and its neighbouring sister city of Omdurman, according to an internal UN document.

The RSF and the army have traded accusations that the other side is impeding foreign evacuations and attacking embassy staff.

Neighbouring South Sudan — which has about one million people in Sudan — has received around 7,000 citizens fleeing by road, acting Foreign Minister Deng Dau Deng said by phone from Juba.

“Typically all the countries evacuating their people are doing it from Port Sudan,” South Sudanese Foreign minister Deng Dau Deng said by phone from Juba, adding that its oil exports via the port were unaffected.

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