FOREIGNERS AIRLIFTED OUT; SUDANESE SCRAMBLE FOR REFUGE
Generals likely to escalate fighting
Kuwait First Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Acting Defense Minister Sheikh Talal Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah stressed keenness of the political leadership on safety and security of the nationals coming from Sudan. This came when the minister received 25 Kuwaiti citizens coming from Jeddah international airport as part of the emergency plan aiming to evacuate the Kuwaitis stuck in Sudan due to the ongoing clashes, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The political leadership is following closely the efforts made by the Foreign Ministry led by Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the Kuwaiti embassy staff in Sudan in securing the Kuwaitis coming from Sudan, the minister said. He extolled the efforts and facilitation made by Saudi Arabia led, by King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, that contributed to evacuating successfully the sisterly and friendly countries’ citizens. The minister expressed greetings of Eid to the nationals who came from Sudan, praying to Allah the Almighty to protect Kuwait, its people and wise leadership.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said Saturday the Foreign Ministry has carried out an emergency evacuation of Kuwaiti citizens from violence-hit Sudan at the behest of the political leadership. All Kuwaiti citizens wishing to return to their homeland have already arrived in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia ahead of their safe home-return, the minister said in a press statement. He commended the efforts of Kuwaiti Ambassador in Sudan Dr. Fahad Al-Dhafiri and all embassy staff in this regard. The Kuwaiti foreign minister also voiced much thanks and gratitude to Saudi and Sudanese authorities for facilitating the evacuation of Kuwaitis. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Saturday called his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al- Saud, voicing sincere congratulations on successful evacuations by Saudi ships of citizens from 11 countries from Sudan to Jeddah.
Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah expressed Kuwait’s appreciation and gratitude to the Saudi foreign minister for the kingdom’s efforts to ensure the evacuation of Kuwaiti citizens from Sudan. As foreign governments airlifted hundreds of their diplomats and other citizens to safety, Sudanese on Monday desperately sought ways to escape the chaos, fearing that the country’s two rival generals will escalate their all-out battle for power once evacuations were completed. The evacuations were a dramatic operation. In convoys, foreign diplomats, workers and families made their way past combatants at tense front lines in the capital of Khartoum to reach extraction points – or even drove hundreds of miles to the country’s east coast.
Conditions
A stream of European and Mideast military aircraft flew in all day Sunday, through the night and into Monday, to ferry them out. France and Germany said more flights were possible if security conditions permitted. But for many Sudanese, the airlift was a terrifying sign that international powers, after failing repeatedly to broker cease-fires, only expect a worsening of the fighting that has pushed the population into disaster. During nine days of warfare in Khartoum and other cities, millions have been trapped in their homes by explosions, gunfire and armed fighters looting in the streets while food supplies run out and hospitals near collapse.
Many Sudanese, along with Egyptians and other foreigners who could not get on flights, risked the long and dangerous drive to the northern border into Egypt. “We traveled 15 hours on land at our own risk,” Suliman al-Kouni, an Egyptian student, said at the Arqin border crossing with Egypt. Buses lined up at the remote desert crossing carrying hundreds of people, he said. Al-Kouni was among dozens of Egyptian students making the trek. “But many of our friends are still trapped in Sudan,” he said. Amani el-Taweel, an Egyptian expert on Africa, warned of “horrific suffering” for Sudanese unable to leave. While Sudanese who can afford it make their way to Egypt or Chad, the poor “will suffer greatly as they will have no access to aid or food,” said el-Taweel, with Egypt’s Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Humanitarian aid can no longer reach Sudanese because of the clashes, and once evacuations are complete, “warring parties will not heed any calls for a truce or a ceasefire,” she said. Fighting raged in Khartoum and Omdurman, a city across the Nile River, residents said, despite a hoped-for cease-fire to coincide with the threeday Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Heavy gunfire and thundering explosions rocked the city. Over 420 people, including 264 civilians, have been killed and over 3,700 wounded in the fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.
Abandon
For foreign nationals, the need to abandon Khartoum had become overbearing by the seventh day of the conflict. Khartoum’s wealthy neighborhoods where most foreigners live saw some of the heaviest shelling and drone strikes, and several fell under RSF control. Alice Lehtinen, a British teacher living in the Khartoum Two neighborhood, was shot in the foot by a stray bullet on the first day of fighting. Soon after, RSF troops occupied the lower floor of her apartment as they combed the streets for weapons, dollars and other supplies, she said. By this point, the Sudanese pound had become worthless as shops lay smashed and looted.
Another British teacher, Elizabeth Boughey, said the RSF broke into her house and stole her Sudanese pounds, then returned soon after to hand the money back. They looked young she said, somewhere between 16 and 18. Amid continued gunfire, nationals from dozens of countries made their way to extraction points. Most European evacuations took place out of a site on the outskirts of Khartoum, and evacuees had to make their way across the city to reach it. Some braved the roads in their own vehicles while others called on private security firms to shepherd them through military and RSF checkpoints.
From the windows of one convoy, fighters from the two sides could be seen standing, heavily armed but unmoving. The exodus began with American special operations forces swooping in and out of Khartoum in helicopters early Sunday to evacuate U.S. Embassy personnel. France brought out nearly 400 people, including citizens from 28 countries, on four flights to the nearby Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, two of them overnight.
Source- Arab Times.
