Heavy fighting has been raging in Khartoum, the capital, for several days.
France has begun a “rapid evacuation operation” of its nationals and diplomatic personnel from Sudan, where heavy fighting has entered its second week, the Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday. European nationals and those coming from “allied partner countries” are also taken care of, indicates the ministry, without further details.
According to a diplomatic source, the Sudanese armed forces, like the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), against whom they are fighting, “provided security guarantees” allowing this operation.
Some 250 French nationals live in Sudan, from the same source.
Other countries have launched evacuations
A few hours earlier, the United States had announced that it had evacuated its embassy in Sudan. “Today, at my request, the United States military conducted an operation to extract United States government personnel from Khartoum,” President Joe Biden said in a statement released late Saturday evening Washington time.
The FSRs had indicated on Sunday on Twitter having “coordinated” for this with Washington. The evacuation of “diplomats and their families” was to take place Sunday morning aboard six planes, according to the FSR.
The first major operation to evacuate civilians since the start of the fighting was announced on Saturday by Saudi Arabia, which repatriated 91 of its citizens and 66 nationals of other countries.
For several days, the United States, South Korea and Japan have deployed forces in neighboring countries and the European Union has said it wants to take similar measures to evacuate their diplomats and nationals from Sudan.
More than 400 dead, nearly 4,000 injured
Violence erupted there on April 15 between the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, de facto ruler of Sudan since the 2021 putsch, and his deputy turned rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces. .
The still very provisional toll stands at more than 420 dead and 3,700 injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
SATURDAY, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna had sent “a message of solidarity and support” to French nationals in Sudan “in the ordeal they are going through. Rest assured that all state services are mobilized for your safety.”
