Evacuations continue unabated in Sudan

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Warplanes bombarded the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, the main airport was at the center of the fighting, and artillery fire made movement in and out of one of Africa's largest cities unsafe. Diplomats were targeted in the attacks and at least five aid workers were killed. Countries are competing with each other to evacuate their citizens as soon as possible.

Evacuations continue unabated in Sudan

The clashes that broke out between the Sudanese army and the well-armed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15 triggered a new humanitarian crisis in the country and more than 400 people were killed.

Thousands of foreign diplomats, aid workers, students and their families have found themselves trapped in a war zone over the past week, with millions of Sudanese stranded in their homes without access to basic services.

THE PROCESS OF EVACUATION OF FOREIGN PEOPLE ACCELERATED

European countries, China and others from around the world are struggling to get thousands of their citizens out of Khartoum amid an apparent recession in the fierce conflict between the military and the paramilitary NGO.

France and Germany said they had evacuated about 700 people without giving an indication of their nationality.

While some countries sent military planes from Djibouti to fly people from the capital, other operations took people by convoy from Khartoum to Port Sudan in the Red Sea, about 800km by road.

China, Denmark, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden also said they had evacuated their citizens, while Japan said it was preparing to send an evacuation team from Djibouti.

FEARED OF INTERNAL CONFLICT AWAKENING FOREIGN FORCES

The army and the RSF jointly staged a coup in 2021, but disagreement arose during negotiations to integrate the two factions and form a civilian government years after the overthrow of long-time ruling Omar al-Bashir.

There is concern that rivalry between the two groups increases the risk of a wider conflict that could also draw in outside powers.

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