US completes its first evacuation mission after busing hundreds of Americans out of war-torn Sudan under escort of armed drones
The first US-led evacuation of private citizens in Sudan has been completed after hundreds of people made the perilous journey across the war-torn nation to Port Sudan.
Desperate citizens reached the port under the escort of armed drones, which oversaw a bus convoy carrying 200 to 300 Americans over 500 miles to Port Sudan, a place of relative safety, U.S. officials said.
The US has been criticized by families of trapped Americans in Sudan for initially ruling out any US-run evacuation, despite an estimated 16,000 Americans in Sudan wishing to leave.
Saturday’s evacuation came after U.S. special operations troops briefly flew to the capital, Khartoum, April 22 to airlift out American staffers at the embassy and other American government personnel.
Smoke is seen in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 19, four days after fighting broke out in the war-torn nation
More than a dozen other nations have already been carrying out evacuations for their citizens from Sudan, using a mix of military planes, navy vessels and on the ground personnel.
After the nation was thrust into turmoil April 15, a wide-ranging group of international mediators – including African and Arab nations, the United Nations and the United States – has only managed to achieve a series of fragile temporary cease-fires.
While failing to stop clashes, they created enough of a lull for tens of thousands of Sudanese to flee to safety.
Though US officials have tried to link up Americans with other nation’s evacuation efforts, they previously warned citizens they needed to find their own way out of the country when the conflict broke out.
The latest attempt to evacuate nationals from the country came as US officials exploited a relative quiet in the fighting and, from afar, organized their own convoy for Americans.
US officials have previously attempted to help citizens join other nation’s evacuation efforts. Pictured: British Nationals about to board an RAF aircraft in Sudan
Without the evacuation flights near the capital that other countries have been offering their citizens, many U.S. citizens have been left to make the dangerous overland journey from Khartoum to the country´s main Red Sea port, Port Sudan.
One Sudanese-American family that made the trip earlier described passing through numerous checkpoints manned by armed men and passing bodies lying in the street and vehicles of other fleeing families who had been killed along the way.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the convoy carried U.S. citizens, local people employed by the U.S. and citizens of allied countries.
‘We reiterate our warning to Americans not to travel to Sudan,’ he said.
Alongside its recent efforts, US officials also are working with Saudi Arabia to see if one of the kingdom´s naval vessels can carry a larger number of Americans to Jeddah.
An aerial view of black smoke rising over Khartoum, Sudan on April 28
U.S. officials have carried out their first evacuation of its citizens in Sudan after hundreds of Americans completed the dangerous journey across the war-torn nation to its port Saturday
From Port Sudan, away from the fighting, the Americans in the convoy can seek spots on vessels crossing the Red Sea to the Saudi port city of Jeddah. U.S. consular officials will be waiting for the Americans once they reach the dock in Jeddah, but there are no U.S. personnel in Port Sudan, officials said.
Mounting evacuation efforts come after two Americans were confirmed killed since the fighting erupted April 15.
One was a U.S. civilian whom officials said was caught in crossfire. The other was an Iowa City, Iowa, doctor, who was stabbed to death in front of his house and family in Khartoum, in the lawless violence that has accompanied the fighting.
In all, the fighting in the east African country has killed more than 500 people.
