France starts evacuating citizens, diplomatic staff from Sudan - Foreign Ministry
23 Apr 2023 06:33pm
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"The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Armed Forces are coordinating a rapid evacuation operation of our diplomatic personnel and nationals in Sudan," the ministry said, reported Sputnik.
The operation also includes citizens of France's "European and allied partners" as well as European diplomatic personnel, the statement read.
Earlier on Sunday, US President Joe Biden confirmed that he had ordered US military forces to evacuate US government personnel from the US embassy in Sudan's capital of Khartoum. US Under Secretary of State for Management John Bass specified that under 100 people had been evacuated from the American embassy.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia said it had started arranging the evacuation of its citizens and nationals of "brotherly and friendly" countries from Sudan, while Sweden flagged plans to send a military detachment to the northeast African nation to evacuate Swedish citizens and diplomatic corps. Turkey is set to evacuate its nationals on Sunday, the country's embassy in Khartoum said.
On April 15, violent clashes between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the RSF broke out, with the epicenter in Khartoum. Government forces accused the RSF of mutiny and launched airstrikes against their bases. Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military, issued a decree disbanding the RSF. The sides agreed to a three-day truce starting Friday in connection with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
On Thursday, the Sudanese Health Ministry said that the death toll in the armed clashes surpassed 600. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported on Friday that 413 people were killed and 3,551 others were injured. The Sudanese Doctors' Union said on Saturday that the armed clashes killed 256 civilians and injured 1,454 others. -BERNAMA-SPUTNIK
