The
United States MILITARY airlifted embassy officials out of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, amid continuing violence as rival military leaders battled for control of Africa’s third-largest country, President Biden said late on Saturday. “Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract U.S. government personnel from Khartoum,” Mr. Biden said in . A U.S. official familiar with the matter said the military airlifted about 70 U.S. embassy employees using helicopters and V-22 Ospreys — a plane that can take off and land vertically — from a site near the embassy after sundown. The Navy’s SEAL Team 6 special force was involved, the official said. The move came on the eighth day of brutal fighting in the capital and other parts of the country between the army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, whose leaders are vying for supremacy in Sudan. With the airport in the capital badly damaged by shelling, and the country’s air space closed, the evacuation was a daring move. The
Pentagon had positioned more troops in recent days in the nearby nation of Djibouti, where the U.S. military has a base, to prepare for a rescue. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, said using an airlift for the emergency evacuation was deemed necessary because the alternative — a convoy through the city to its airport, which had been the scene of heavy fighting — was seen as too dangerous. Mr. Biden also thanked Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, saying they were critical to the success of the operation. “I am proud of the extraordinary commitment of our embassy staff, who performed their duties with courage and professionalism and embodied America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan,” Mr. Biden said. “I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety.” In a separate statement released by the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III also praised the troops involved in the operation. “This action, led by U.S. Africa Command and conducted in close coordination with the U.S. State Department, demonstrates the Department of Defense’s support for our nation’s diplomatic personnel,” he said. “I’m proud of our extraordinary service members who executed and supported this operation with outstanding precision and professionalism.” The announcement capped a day of confusion, after Sudan’s military chief vowed to help relocate nationals of several countries including the United States, but the embassy said at the time that it was too dangerous to evacuate its citizens. At least 400 people have been killed in the ensuing clashes and 3,500 injured, according to the
United Nations. They include at least 256 civilians who died and 1,454 who were wounded, according to a doctors union. The fighting has left many people stranded at home without electricity, food or water, and doctors and hospitals say they are struggling to cope. Countless residents of Khartoum have fled the city, where bodies line the streets, to find refuge in safer suburbs and states. More than 15,000 people from the western region of Darfur have fled into neighboring Chad, and humanitarian organizations have reported being unable to work amid the incessant fighting. Aid workers and diplomats, who were often able to stay out of the fray in the past, have this time found themselves targets. The World Food Program said that three of its workers were killed. An
American convoy was attacked this past week, and the
European Union ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his home. The army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is Sudan’s de facto leader, said in a statement on Saturday morning that his troops would facilitate the evacuation of
diplomats and citizens from
Britain,
China,
France and the United States “in the coming hours.” Soon after, however, the American Embassy that “due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens.” But hours later, a
Twitter account purportedly run by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by General Burhan’s rival, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, announced in a statement that they had assisted American forces in evacuating all embassy personnel and their families. “The Rapid Support Forces Command has coordinated with the U.S Forces Mission consisting of 6 aircraft, for evacuating diplomats and their families on Sunday morning,” the said. (Twitter removed authentication last week, but the account had a significant number of followers and appeared to be legitimate.) The embassy in Khartoum declined to say how many Americans were in the country. But a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that during the Covid pandemic, the embassy had counted about 19,000 Americans in Sudan, many of them dual nationals. Several countries have positioned planes in neighboring countries, ready to fly when the airport is clear. By one estimate, the planes will be able to carry up to 4,000 people in total. But any flights in and out of Khartoum are risky. The area around the airport, including the military headquarters, has been the site of some of the most intense fighting over the past week. And residents said that gun battles continued to rage in several parts of the city on Saturday morning, including near the airport. Road travel also involves considerable risk. Khartoum is 600 miles from the border with
Egypt and 525 miles from Port Sudan on the Red Sea — about the same distance from
New York City to Columbus, Ohio, but through areas contested by the two sides. Foreigners and wealthy Sudanese have turned to private security companies to help escape Khartoum, but risks remain. The security official said that one convoy carrying 17 people had made a 14-hour journey from the city on Friday, only to arrive in a heavily contested area where gun battles continued on Saturday. Earlier, General al-Burhan said that diplomats from
Saudi Arabia had been evacuated by land to Port Sudan, in the country’s east, and taken to Saudi Arabia, with a similar operation expected to take place for Jordanian citizens. Hungary’s foreign minister said on Saturday that 14 Hungarian citizens and 48 foreign nationals, most of them American and , had been evacuated by sea and were headed to Egypt. As the clashes continued, Sudan’s health care system was teetering, and there were few signs that the two warring factions would stop fighting. Out of 78 major hospitals in the country, only 55 are operational, according to the physicians association. “The health care system is about to collapse,” Mohamed Eisa, the secretary general of the Sudanese American Physicians Association, a United States-based nonprofit, said in a telephone interview from Khartoum. “We must secure a safe passage for the injured.” Gunfire had stopped on Friday evening, leaving Khartoum residents hopeful that a break was in sight. Dr. Eisa said that for the first time, he had been able to get some sleep at his home in southern Khartoum, where the fighting has been continuous. It did not last long. He woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of gunfire and heavy machinery. “It was as if nothing had happened,” he said of the dashed hopes for some respite. Constant Méheut contributed reporting from
Paris.