Sudan updates: UN chief warns violence could engulf region
The secretary-general said the UN should exert all its power to pull Sudan back from the ‘edge of the abyss’.
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. Here are the updates on the Sudan conflict from Monday, April 24:
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. Here are the updates on the Sudan conflict from Monday, April 24:
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the violence in Sudan “risks a catastrophic conflagration within Sudan that could engulf the whole region and beyond”.
- Countries around the world are racing to extract thousands of their citizens from Khartoum.
- Millions of Sudanese, thousands of foreign diplomats, aid workers and students found themselves in a war zone on April 15 and have been trying to leave since.
- Fighter jets have bombed the capital, and the main airport has been at the centre of the fighting.
- At least two convoys involved in the evacuations have come under attack, including one carrying Qatari embassy staff and another carrying French citizens.
96 people evacuated from Sudan on board Italian military aircrafts
Two Italian military planes have evacuated 96 people out of Sudan.
The two military aircraft were carrying 83 Italian nationals and 13 citizens of different nationalities, who were all first evacuated from Khartoum and taken to Djibouti.
Footage showed the military escorts and the rescued people, among them minors and Italy’s ambassador to Sudan, exiting the aircraft.
“We are very happy to be here … there were a lot of delicate moments,” Ambassador Michele Tommasi told journalists.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that some Italians — nongovernmental organisation workers and missionaries — had decided to stay in the country, while another 19 had successfully been taken to Egypt two days ago.
Sudan rivals agree to nationwide ceasefire: Blinken
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said in a statement.
The United States urged both sides to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire in Sudan, Blinken added.
UK has military team in Sudan: Armed forces minister
The United Kingdom has a military team in Sudan doing reconnaissance, the UK’s armed forces minister James Heappey has said, as the government held an emergency meeting to discuss options to help about 4,000 Britons stuck in the North African country.
London has faced some criticism for being relatively slower to extract Britons from Sudan.
“I don’t accept that criticism,” Heappey told LBC Radio when asked about it. “I’m very confident in the options that we’re developing.
“There is indeed a military team in the east of the country in Port Sudan doing reconnaissance there so that we can present the Prime Minister [Rishi Sunak] all possible options for helping the British nationals who are in Sudan,” Heappey told LBC Radio later on Monday.
UK diplomatic staff and their family members have been evacuated from Sudan by the country’s armed forces, Sunak had said on Sunday.
Approximately 4,000 Britons are estimated to be in Sudan, Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s minister for Africa, told legislators on Monday, adding that the government was holding an emergency response meeting, a so-called COBRA meeting, to decide next steps.
“The situation in Sudan is extremely grave,” Mitchell said. “COBRA is meeting as we speak. It has met six times so far — five times chaired by the prime minister — and that includes one COBRA that we attended at 3:15 am on Saturday.”
UN Security Council to meet on Sudan on Tuesday
The Security Council plans to meet again on Sudan on Tuesday, a day after UN chief Antonio Guterres urged its 15 members to use their clout to return Sudan to the path of democratic transition.
Egypt denies killing of assistant military attaché by RSF fire
Egypt’s ambassador in Khartoum has denied a Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) report that the country’s assistant military attaché was killed by fire from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the Sudanese capital.
According to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry on Monday, the country’s ambassador in Sudan said the report was false.
Earlier in the day, the SAF said in a statement that the Egyptian assistant military attaché in Sudan was killed by RSF fire while he was driving his car in Khartoum.
White House urges warring sides to commit to ceasefire
The White House has demanded that warring parties in Sudan adhere to an immediate ceasefire and ensure the protection of people as the United States works to evacuate its citizens.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that American citizens have begun arriving in Port Sudan and the US is facilitating their onward travel.
Sullivan said there are no plans by the US to put peacekeeping troops on the ground in Sudan.
The US military evacuated American diplomatic personnel in Khartoum over the weekend and suspended embassy operations. Sullivan said Washington would like to resume diplomatic operations as soon as it is safe.
Thousands of Americans in Sudan, many with dual citizenship, have been urged to shelter in place for now.
“We would like to help as many Americans go as possible,” Sullivan said, noting that the best way to do that is to assist in a land evacuation route.
Sudan ‘risks catastrophic conflagration’: Guterres
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the violence “risks a catastrophic conflagration within Sudan that could engulf the whole region and beyond” and called on UN Security Council members to exert maximum leverage.
“We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss,” Guterres told the 15-member council.
Arab nations evacuate citizens from Sudan
Saudi Arabia is leading the first reported successful evacuations from Sudan, with naval operations picking up more than 150 people, including 66 nationals from 12 other countries.
Egypt’s military last week evacuated 177 soldiers, and on Sunday the foreign ministry said 436 citizens had left by land. More than 10,000 Egyptians are thought to live in Sudan.
Over 200 Moroccans were taken to Port Sudan in convoys organised by their embassy, Rabat said Monday, adding that they would be flown home from there.
Both Tunisia and Algeria have announced rescue operations starting Monday.
Jordan – whose military airports have been used for some rescue flights – said Saturday that it had begun the evacuation of around 300 citizens with Saudi and UAE cooperation, while 52 Lebanese and 105 Libyans had also left on a Saudi naval vessel.
Israel proposes hosting Sudan rivals for ceasefire talks
Israel has proposed hosting rival Sudanese leaders for ceasefire talks after “very promising” progress in mediation efforts led by a senior Israeli official over the past few days.
“Since fighting erupted in the country, Israel has been operating in various channels to reach a ceasefire, and the progress over the past few days in discussions with the sides is very promising,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement.
The statement gave no further details other than saying the official had been holding discussions with the warring generals.
Sudan and Israel announced in February they had finalised a deal normalising ties, with the signing due to follow a transfer of power from the military to a civilian government in Khartoum.
Cohen said he hoped that working to achieve calm in Sudan “would allow for the signing of a historic peace agreement”.
ICRC warns of challenges to access food, water, electricity in Sudan
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) has warned about challenges to accessing water and food in Sudan.
“There is still a challenge in accessing food, there’s still a challenge accessing electricity and water and that is prompting people to move,” said Farid Aiywar, Sudan head for the ICRC.
For those remaining in Africa’s third-largest country, where UN agencies say a third of its 46 million people needed aid even before the violence, the situation was increasingly bleak.
Facing attacks, aid organisations were among those withdrawing staff and the World Food Programme has suspended its food distribution mission, one of the largest in the world.
Clean water and fuel were becoming harder to come by in Khartoum, with electricity and internet services patchy. Residents have been sharing resources.
Some 300 Palestinians relocated to Port Sudan and Egypt
The Palestinian Authority foreign ministry says some 72 Palestinians have relocated to Port Sudan, while vehicle convoys are carrying about 200 Palestinians to Egypt.
Meanwhile, 343 Jordanian nationals evacuated from Port Sudan arrived at Amman military airport on board four transport aircraft.
538 Indonesians relocated from Khartoum to Port Sudan: FM
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has said Jakarta successfully relocated more than 500 nationals from the capital Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea on Monday.
She said preparations were being made for the group of 538 to be transported by sea to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, without providing further details.
“Most of the Indonesian citizens who were evacuated were Indonesian students, Indonesian migrant workers, Indofood company employees and Indonesian embassy staff and their families,” Marsudi told a news briefing.
Preparations for their return home were ongoing, and a further 289 Indonesians would be “evacuated in the second phase at the first opportunity”, she said.
About 1,200 Indonesians are registered at the embassy in Khartoum, according to the Indonesian foreign ministry.
China evacuates first group of citizens from Sudan
China has evacuated the first group of its citizens from conflict-hit Sudan, Beijing’s foreign ministry has said.
China says it is Sudan’s largest trading partner, with more than 130 companies investing there as of mid-2022.
Beijing’s foreign ministry estimates more than 1,500 Chinese nationals are currently in Sudan.
The first group of Chinese citizens has been “safely evacuated”, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday, without giving a specific number.
Nigeria to evacuate nearly 3000 nationals from Sudan this week
Nigeria plans to start evacuating nearly 3,000 of its nationals, mostly students, from Sudan by convoy to Egypt this week, a top official has said.
Onimode Bandele, special duties director for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency or NEMA, told Channels TV the plan was to move about 2,650 to 2,800, including families of embassy staff.
“Nobody has been evacuated yet,” he said. “There are plans to get buses to start movement tomorrow morning.”
Officials say approximately 5,000 Nigerian nationals could be looking for evacuation.
Chad to evacuate more than 400 citizens from Sudan
Chad will evacuate 438 of its citizens from conflict-torn Sudan, busing them from Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea then flying them home, Chadian government spokesperson Aziz Mahamat Saleh tweeted on Monday.
Foreign Minister Mahamat Saleh Annadif said that the total number of Chadians living in Sudan was not known.
Those who were being evacuated were 300 students and 120 Chadians in need of medical care, as well as “around 30” soldiers who were at Sudanese training schools, he said.
Chad closed its long 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) border with Sudan on April 15 after the violence erupted.
France shuts embassy in Khartoum ‘until further notice’
France has said it was closing its embassy in Sudan, where clashes between the army and paramilitary forces have sparked evacuations of foreigners.
The French mission in Khartoum will be shut “until further notice”, the foreign affairs ministry said, and would no longer serve as a rallying point for expatriates trying to leave the country.
France has airlifted 491 people from 36 countries, including 12 European Union nations, to Djibouti since Sunday, according to the ministry.
The ministry, however, added that it had been unable to reach the few French people living outside the capital Khartoum.
US has ‘deep concern’ about Wagner involvement in Sudan: Blinken
Blinken has said the United States has “deep concern” about the involvement of the Russian mercenary organisation Wagner Group in Sudan.
Several US media outlets had reported, citing anonymous officials, that Wagner was looking to interfere in the conflict in Sudan and had offered heavy weapons to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The Wagner Group, at the front lines of key battles in Ukraine, has denied involvement in the Sudan conflict. The RSF also denied any ties to Wagner.
Blinken called the Wagner Group “an element that when it’s engaged simply brings more death and destruction with it”.
“It’s very important that we not see its further engagement in Sudan,” he said.
South Africa begins evacuating citizens from Sudan
South Africa says it has begun evacuating dozens of its citizens trapped in conflict-hit Sudan.
“I can confirm that the operation to evacuate South Africans in Sudan and the staff at the South African embassy there is currently under way. They are being taken to a neighbouring country for safety,” foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela told journalists on Monday, without disclosing the country.
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Blinken says US will work with ‘all parties’ to end fighting
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington is communicating with Sudan’s warring generals “to press them to extend and expand the Eid ceasefire to a sustainable cessation of hostilities that prevents further violence and upholds humanitarian obligations”.
He added that the United States will work with “all parties” to bring an end to the fighting and a return to civilian rule in Sudan.
“The Sudanese people are not giving up on their aspirations for a secure, free and democratic future; neither will we,” Blinken said.
US facilitating departure of citizens from Sudan: Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that although Washington’s embassy in Khartoum has suspended its operations on the ground, it continues to assist American citizens looking to leave Sudan.
“In just the last 36 hours since the embassy evacuation operation was completed, we’ve continued to be in close communication with US citizens and individuals affiliated with the US government to provide assistance and facilitate available departure routes for those seeking to move to safety via land, air and sea,” Blinken said.
South Korean military aircraft evacuates citizens, Japanese nationals
A South Korean military aircraft has evacuated 28 of the country’s citizens from Sudan, along with an unspecified number of Japanese nationals, South Korea’s presidential office said on Monday.
A bus carrying the South Korean citizens arrived at the Port Sudan New International Airport for evacuation on a C-130 cargo aircraft, which then flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Second Deputy Director of the National Security Office Lim Jong-deuk told a briefing.
In Jeddah, 26 of the South Koreans were due to board a larger military aircraft that would fly directly to Seoul, Lim added. Two people did not have immediate plans to return to South Korea.
“After they arrive in Korea, our government will take necessary measures to ensure that urgently needed accommodations, such as checking their health status, are provided,” he said.
“A number of Japanese residents” were also evacuated on the flight, Lim said without elaborating.
The 28 people represented all of the South Koreans who wished to leave Sudan, with one known citizen opting to remain behind, he said.
South Korea had said it forward-deployed military air and naval assets near Sudan in order to be able to respond as necessary.
‘The UN is not leaving Sudan’: Guterres
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN will continue to operate in Sudan.
“Let me be clear: The United Nations is not leaving Sudan. Our commitment is to the Sudanese people in support of their wishes for a peaceful, secure future. We stand with them at this terrible time,” Guterres told the 15-member UN Security Council.
“We will continue our efforts with our partners to secure a permanent halt to the fighting as soon as possible. Working with humanitarian organisations on the ground, we are reconfiguring our presence in Sudan to enable us to continue supporting the Sudanese people.”
UN relocates staff from Khartoum, other areas in Sudan
The United Nations has relocated hundreds of staff members and dependents from Khartoum and other locations in Sudan, a spokesperson for Secretary-General António Guterres said.
Guterres reiterated his call on all parties to cease hostilities and allow civilians to evacuate from areas affected by fighting, adding that the UN will continue its work with its personnel inside and outside of Sudan.
Hospitals struggle as violence in Sudan rages
Hospitals in Sudan have struggled as violence rages. Many wounded are stranded by the fighting, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate which monitors casualties, suggesting the death toll is probably higher than what is known.
At least 420 people, including 264 civilians, have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded in fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The Italian medical group Emergency said 46 of its staff refused to leave, working in hospitals in Khartoum, Nyala and Port Sudan.
Sudan remains largely offline: Monitoring service
Sudan has experienced a “near-total collapse” of internet and phone service, according to the monitoring service NetBlocks.
⚠ Update: Sudan remains largely offline in the midst of an internet blackout, with connectivity at 2% of ordinary levels; the military allege that paramilitaries sabotaged the telecom exchange in Khartoum early this morning impacting networks including Sudani pic.twitter.com/vEUWKglwq6
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) April 23, 2023
“This will have a major effect on residents’ ability to stay safe and will impact the evacuation programs that are ongoing,” said NetBlocks director Alp Toker.
Neighbouring Chad, which derives much of its connectivity from Sudan and Cameroon, has seen its internet connectivity significantly decline.