Foreign nations pushed on Monday with frantic evacuations of their citizens from chaos-torn Sudan, where heavy fighting raged for a 10th day between forces loyal to two rival generals.
As army and paramilitary forces again clashed in Khartoum and across the country, terrified Sudanese have endured acute shortages of water, food, medicines and fuel as well as power and internet blackouts, the UN said.
At least 427 people have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded, according to United Nations agencies, which also reported Sudanese civilians “fleeing areas affected by fighting, including to Chad, Egypt and South Sudan”.
“Morgues are full, corpses litter the streets” and overwhelmed hospitals often have to stop operations for security reasons, said Dr Attiya Abdallah, head of the doctors’ union.
The United States and multiple European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian nations have launched emergency missions to bring to safety their embassy staff and Sudan-based citizens by road, air and sea.
US special forces swooped in with Chinook helicopters Sunday to rescue diplomats and their dependents, while Britain launched a similar rescue mission involving more than 1,000 military personnel.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said more than 1,000 of the bloc’s citizens had been taken out during a “long and intense weekend” involving missions by France, Germany and other member nations.
With Khartoum international airport disabled after battles that left charred aeroplanes on the runways, many foreigners were airlifted out from smaller airstrips, many to nearby Djibouti.
Long convoys of UN cars and buses have made their way from the capital, where gunfire again echoed through the streets, to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, an arduous 850 kilometre (530 mile) road trip away.
“The war fell upon us all without warning,” a Lebanese evacuee told AFPTV upon his arrival by bus to Port Sudan. “It was very, very sad for everyone, not just the foreigners — most of all for the Sudanese people.
“The situation in Khartoum in very sad … It’s destroyed. I left with this T-shirt and these pyjamas, all that I have with me after 17 years.”
AFP