Shortly after midnight Saturday, the U.S. evacuated American diplomats and their families from Sudan — where fighting has been ongoing in the capital Khartoum since April 15.
A helicopter picked up the U.S. diplomats Saturday, and “an elite team of Navy SEALs ushered up to 90 people onto aircraft before taking off for Djibouti, 800 miles away,” The New York Times reported.
Since the evacuation, other countries have flooded in to get their personnel out of the country as well. British and French diplomats were escorted hours later to an airfield outside the city to board military cargo planes, per the Times.
At least 400 people have been killed in the violence, and the United Nations reported that at least two-thirds of the hospitals in the city remain closed, per the Times.
Some Sudanese residents expressed being upset with the rival factions because they appeared to show more care to help foreign groups escape than they did for their own citizens.
“Seeing the foreigners leave made me upset because I see there’s some groups that were helped by the army and RSF, meanwhile we keep getting hit,” Sudanese local Alsadig Alfatih told Reuters.
The fighting has destroyed some critical resources, including the international airport.
What caused the fighting in Sudan?
Violence erupted because of warring generals from military factions that have been in power within the country the last few years — Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan ruling the nation’s armed forces and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dalago leading the Rapid Support Forces military group. The lead-up to the violence included work on a plan to put the ruling power back into the hands of civilians, but both rival military factions grew concerned about which one would have more power with the plan. It isn’t clear which side started the fighting, as of yet.
“The fire is getting stronger. We can’t stay here. If you do not die from the bombs, you will die of hunger. There is nothing in the markets to eat,” a Khartoum-based science teacher told The Washington Post.
What’s next for the U.S. and Sudan?
Because of the continued violence in the country, U.S. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told CBS News that there was not a plan to do another “coordinated evacuation for remaining U.S. citizens” until tensions settle and it becomes safe to do so.
“We’re going to do everything we can to help guide people, get them the information they need to get out safely,” Kirby told CBS News. “But it is not safe right now for another evacuation attempt. That would actually put Americans in more danger, not less.”
There are thousands of American citizens still in Sudan, and Kirby warned Americans remaining to stay home and shelter in place.