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U.S. claims Sudan too dangerous to evacuate Americans

 

OAN Roy Francis
UPDATED 11:09 AM – Thursday, April 27, 2023

The United States has extracted its diplomats and government employees from Sudan as the conflict in the country continues to escalate, however the evacuations have left thousands of Americans behind.  



TOPSHOT - Sudanese greet army soldiers, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan on April 16, 2023. - Battling fighters in Sudan said they had agreed to an hours-long humanitarian pause, including to evacuate wounded, on the second day of raging urban battles that killed more than 50 civilians including three UN staff and sparking international outcry. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
Sudanese greet army soldiers, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan on April 16, 2023. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)


The State Department issued a security alert on Tuesday in which it said that the situation in the country is “not currently safe,” and advised the estimated 16,000 Americans that are believed to be stuck in the country to remain sheltered in place.  


“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,” the alert said.

Over the weekend, the U.S. used special forces units to evacuate around 70 Embassy staff in a helicopter mission while at the same time telling Americans that no operation would be conducted to get them out of the nation.

The State Department had provided information for those would wanted to leave the country about available border crossing and the requirements at each location, warning that the fighting is making a lot of those routes dangerous and unpredictable.  


So far, since the fighting broke out in Sudan, at least two Americans are confirmed to have been killed.

While the U.S. is saying that the situation is too dangerous to evacuate Americans, other countries are proceeding with their own evacuations.

Countries that have, or are planning to evacuate their citizens, are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Poland, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Japan, South Africa, Kenya, Palestine, South Korea, Jordan, and Egypt.  


While the United Kingdom has evacuated around 30 of its diplomats, and their families, that were in the country, about 2,000 U.K. citizens are still in Sudan. However, the British government has stated that “intense planning” was underway for a “series of possible evacuations.” 


France said that they had evacuated around 500 citizens, from 41 different countries, which included nine Americans. Egypt had urged its citizens in Sudan to head to Port Sudan in the northern part of the country for evacuation. Buses have already evacuated an undisclosed number of Egyptian citizens back into Egypt from the Arqin border crossing. 

https://www.oann.com/newsroom/u-s-claims-sudan-too-dangerous-to-evacuate-americans/