The first machine had already flown from Jordan to Berlin and landed there safely, the ministry said. The evacuation was preceded by an intensive and close exchange with European and international partners as well as the United Nations.
“Thanks to German help, thanks to the French, we have managed to get almost half of the Austrians out of Sudan in the last 24 hours,” said Schallenberg, expressing his concern about the situation in Sudan.
“Sudan is experiencing, if you will, a tsunami of crises, there is a threat of civil war.” In view of a whole series of coups in West Africa and now the fighting in Sudan, the Foreign Minister spoke of a “very worrying situation” that has potential , “to carry the whole region along”.
Ministry in constant contact
Around 30 Austrians are currently still registered in Sudan with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As with those brought out of the country, they are mostly Austrians with Sudanese roots and their relatives who have lived in Sudan for several years, it said. With them, the ministry is “constantly in direct, personal contact with developments and other options to support them with a safe departure, including as part of other planned evacuation missions.”
In the past few days, Schallenberg had been in constant contact with his counterparts, including EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister. According to the Foreign Minister, some Austrian citizens are currently trying to come to Port Sudan or leave the country for Egypt.
German Bundeswehr supports other nations
The German Bundeswehr also flew out numerous people from other countries with their evacuation mission. The people were first taken to Jordan in Airbus A400M military transporters in order to return to Germany from there.
According to a preliminary list available to the dpa in Berlin on Monday, more than half of the 311 people flown out on the first three flights were German citizens. In addition to Germans and Austrians, a single-digit number of nationals from Australia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Belgium, Norway, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Sweden and Portugal were also flown out. Citizens of a number of other countries were also on the list, apparently including family members.
The German federal government wants to continue the evacuation campaign for German and foreign citizens on Monday. “Of course we plan to continue this evacuation today,” said a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office to journalists in Berlin. But that depends “decisively on the security situation on site”. However, neither the Federal Foreign Office nor the Ministry of Defense were able to say on Monday afternoon how long the time window for rescue flights would remain due to commitments by the conflicting parties in Sudan.
Borrell: “Successful action”
According to Borrell, more than a thousand EU citizens have been brought from Sudan so far. “It was a complex action and it was a successful action,” said Borrell on Monday on the sidelines of a meeting with the EU foreign ministers. Among the EU citizens are 21 diplomats from the EU representation in Khartoum.
The EU Ambassador to Sudan, Aidan O’Hara, remains in the country. “The captain is the last to leave the ship. He’s in Sudan, but not in Khartoum anymore,” Borrell said.
US Embassy in Khartoum evacuated
US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had already confirmed the evacuation of the US embassy on Sunday morning. Washington temporarily suspended the work of the US embassy as fighting continued in Sudan, the president said. Blinken again urged the parties to the conflict to permanently cease hostilities.
Some diplomats from other countries were also on board, officials of the US government said. In total, it was less than a hundred people. A significant number of local workers remained in Sudan. A U.S. military said it flew in and out of Sudan without incident.
criticism of the British mission
After British diplomats were flown out of Sudan, the government in London has come under criticism. Several British citizens complained in the media that they felt left alone. The chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns, told BBC Radio 4 on Monday that more than 1,000 Britons are believed to be wanting to be brought to safety.
“Sometimes they are big families. I suspect it’s 3,000, 4,000 or more people,” said the conservative politician. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had previously said the British military had evacuated British diplomats and their families.
According to media reports, France has already taken 388 people from Sudan. A first plane was on Sunday evening from the capital Khartoum on its way to Djibouti, a second plane should also take off in the evening, as reported by the French television stations Franceinfo and BFMTV with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Numerous countries, including the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, tried to get their nationals out of the country. Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra spoke of a “very complex operation”.
Thousands of Sudanese flee
Sudanese are also trying to flee the fighting. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), up to 20,000 people have already fled to neighboring Chad in the past few days. Thousands more have been displaced from heavily contested areas within the country.
A week ago, fighting broke out in Sudan between the country’s two most powerful generals and their units. Both had led the country with around 46 million inhabitants since a joint military coup in 2021. Now de facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is also the supreme commander of the army, is fighting with the military against his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, the leader of the powerful paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Actually, Daglo’s group should have been subordinate to the army and power in the country should have been returned to a civilian government.
The number of civilians killed is increasing every day, according to the National Medical Committee. There is not yet a complete overview of the extent. Many of the injured have no access to care. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 413 people have died and more than 3,500 have been injured since the fighting began. The actual number of victims is probably much higher.
