Friday April 21, 2023 | 9:15 a.m.
The Defense Department is positioning troops near violence-wracked Sudan in case U.S. diplomatic and other personnel need an emergency evacuation, Biden administration officials said Thursday.
President Biden made the decision earlier this week to move troops and equipment to a “close” base in Djibouti, when a US diplomatic convoy came under attack in Khartoum and two fledgling ceasefires quickly collapsed, said John Kirby, communications coordinator. strategies for the National Security Council.
Troops have been moved “as needed,” Kirby told reporters at the White House. “No decision has been made … about asking someone to evacuate … If the decision is made, we will have more to say at that time about the size and scale.”
“The focus now is to urge” both sides to stop the violence, he said, adding that “we have good accountability for all our government personnel there” who are sheltering in their homes or workplaces. The State Department is now focusing on trying to assemble staff at a central location in Khartoum, the capital.
The decision to preposition troops was “a consequence of things that we have learned over the last year, year and a half,” Kirby said, referring to the August 2021 evacuation of Kabul and the more orderly departure of US officials from Ukraine before the start of the Russian invasion last year. Both involved extensive planning and pre-positioning, though the Afghanistan operation descended into chaos when hundreds of thousands of Afghans seeking to escape the Taliban stormed Kabul International Airport.
The State Department has long warned Americans against traveling to Sudan, and US officials have made it clear in recent weeks that any evacuation would not include US citizens there in an unofficial capacity.
Violence in Khartoum erupted nearly a week ago when a power-sharing agreement, established during an attempted transition to democracy following a military coup in 2021, broke down between the forces of two rival generals: the commander of the Sudanese army, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands injured as heavily armed troops have rampaged through the capital. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire or directly attacked by forces from both sides, who have looted and occupied numerous private residences and offices.
According to Abdou Dieng, the head of United Nations operations in Sudan, where about a third of the population of 46 million depends on aid to survive, “humanitarian operations are practically impossible” since the fighting began. “Houses, vehicles and other humanitarian assets have been attacked, looted or seized”, and there have also been reports of sexual violence against civilians.
“There have been no aid services in the last five days,” Dieng said by phone from Khartoum, “simply because it is not possible for aid workers to leave their home or other place” where they have taken refuge. All airports and hospitals and most businesses in the capital are closed.
Dieng spoke to reporters shortly after UN Secretary General António Guterres held an emergency meeting with representatives of multilateral organizations and country representatives to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation. “I called for a three-day ceasefire” to coincide with this week’s Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, he told reporters.
Calling the situation “completely scandalous”, Guterres said it was “a very important moment in the Muslim calendar. I think this is the right time to hold a ceasefire.” He said his office had been “in direct contact with the parties” on the ground and that the first step after a ceasefire and dialogue had to be the establishment of a transitional civilian government.
But neither Burhan nor Hemedti, in separate interviews with Al Jazeera on Thursday, showed any willingness to budge.
“We are asking for a humanitarian truce and a ceasefire for a specified period, but the other side doesn’t want that,” Hemedti said. “But we are not talking about sitting down with a criminal… Burhan was the one who started the battles and is responsible for killing the Sudanese people, so there are no future negotiations with him.”
Burhan said there is no party “we can sit down and negotiate with now.” RSF, he said, “promised to eliminate the Sudanese army and the government of Sudan, and now it is robbing the houses of the Sudanese.”
The two men blamed each other for the collapse of a ceasefire that was due to start Wednesday night.
