Blinken: US engaging with Sudanese leaders, pressing to expand ceasefire

He told a news conference with Kenyan Foreign Secretary Alfred Mutua that deteriorating security conditions in Khartoum posed unacceptable risks to keep personnel there at this time and that the department was communicating with Americans in the country.

"We continue to be in close communication with US citizens and individuals affiliated with the US government to provide assistance and to facilitate available departure routes for those seeking to move to safety," Blinken said.

He said US officials were continuing "to engage directly" with Sudanese military leaders General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the army and leader of Sudan's ruling council since 2019, and his deputy on the council, RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti.

"We also continue to engage directly... to press them to extend and expand" the ceasefire, Blinken said.

Sudan's sudden slide into the conflict between the army and a paramilitary group has sparked efforts by several countries, including the United States, to evacuate stranded nationals.

Mutua said Kenya is not pulling its diplomats out of Sudan because it wants a presence as negotiations continue toward a peaceful settlement.

White House demands ceasefire between warring parties in Sudan

The White House on Monday demanded that warring parties in Sudan adhere to an immediate ceasefire and ensure the protection of people as the United States worked to evacuate its citizens.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that American citizens have begun arriving in Port Sudan and the United States is facilitating their onward travel.

Sullivan said there are no plans by the United States to put peacekeeping troops on the ground in Sudan.

 

The U.S. military evacuated American diplomatic personnel in Khartoum over the weekend and suspended embassy operations. Sullivan said Washington would like to resume diplomatic operations as soon as it is safe.

Thousands of Americans in Sudan, many with dual citizenship, have been urged to shelter in place for now.

UN chief warns Sudan violence risks 'catastrophic conflagration' 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that the violence in Sudan "risks a catastrophic conflagration within Sudan that could engulf the whole region and beyond" and called on Security Council members to exert maximum leverage.

"We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss," Guterres told the 15-member council, adding that the United Nations was not leaving Sudan.

"We stand with them at this terrible time," he said. "I have authorized the temporary relocation both inside and outside Sudan of some United Nations personnel, and families."

Western, Arab and Asian nations raced to extract their citizens from Sudan on Monday as the UN chief warned of the risk of "a catastrophic conflagration" with wider repercussions and urged international powers to exert maximum pressure for peace.

Foreign evacuations included a 65-vehicle convoy with dozens of children among diplomats and aid workers on an 800-km (500-mile), 35-hour journey in searing heat from the embattled capital Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

The eruption of violence between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group on April 15 has killed at least 427 people, knocked out hospitals and other services and turned residential areas into war zones.

Volker Perthes 'grateful' as UN workers, expats evacuate through Port Sudan

Special UN representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes said on Monday he was “grateful” that the UN staff made the trip from Khartoum to Port Sudan safely, ahead of their evacuation.

“I’m glad we’re all here, safe, coming from Khartoum in a very very long journey, but we did it together,” Volker told the UN workers in Port Sudan after getting off the buses.

“Thirty-five hours in a not-so-comfortable convoy is certainly better than three hours bombing and sitting under the shells,” he added.

The UN internationally recruited personnel will be evacuated to neighbouring countries where they will work remotely, a statement said, in a measure “to reduce risks”.

About 700 UN and embassy staff and their dependents have reached Port Sudan by road, the statement said.

"Our presence on the ground has been adjusted in light of the security situation but let me assure you that there is no plan or thinking of the UN leaving Sudan," the statement quoted Perthes as saying.

Tens of thousands have fled Sudan to neighbouring countries including Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Egypt.

Sudanese afraid of what's to come after ghosting Khartoum

As buses were picking up people in al-Seteen Street in Khartoum on Monday, citizens expressed fear that conditions would become worse now that the city was becoming a ghost town.

Standing with their luggage, Sudanese citizens were taking any available ride out of Khartoum, even after a spike in the bus fees from $60 per ride to over $340.

“There’s a big increase in the price of gas which is reflected in the price of the bus ticket,” Karam, who was waiting with his backpack said.

Meanwhile, those who are staying feared that the situation would become worse after lots of expats had been evacuated and lots of Sudanese citizens were moving out.

“Sudanese people are afraid that there might be unethical practices in the war against civilians and using civilians as human shields. These are our fears after the evacuation of expats,” Sudanese citizen Ahmed said.

Women and children disembark the ship in Saudi Arabia, fleeing fighting in Sudan

 A ship carrying people evacuated from Sudan arrived at the King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah on Monday.

The video showed a number of women and children disembarking from HMS Yanbu, as some people on deck waved flags.

The official Saudi Press Agency said that around 199 people were evacuated. Those on board were Saudi nationals as well as others from the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, Qatar, Syria, the Netherlands, Iraq, Turkey, Tanzania, Lebanon, and Libya.

Kenyan, Somali and Saudi students evacuated from Sudan

Kenya evacuated 39 Kenyan, Somali and Saudi students from war-torn Sudan on Monday evening .

The cabinet secretary for the Ministry of defence, Aden Duale, greeted the students on the tarmac and said Kenya would do as many trips as possible to evacuate Kenyans and nationals from other countries.

The students who attended the International University of Africa in Khartoum described their ordeal.

"We were sleeping, as in lying down on the floor, just praying and keeping positive, said Muthoni Njagi, as she, like her fellow students, hoped for an opportunity to get out of Sudan.

Fear and exhaustion: A family's flight from Sudan to Egypt

Rawan al-Waleed was expecting to fly from Khartoum to Cairo last week for a wedding. Instead, she ended up travelling from Sudan to Egypt on a bus her family chartered to escape a war.

The family left after a rocket hit Waleed's family home in Khartoum's Al Amarat district on April 18, destroying the bathroom, as fighting raged between Sudan's army and RSF.

Like other Sudanese who can afford it, they paid 4 million Sudanese pounds ($6,750) to charter a bus to drive about 50 extended family members nearly 1,000 km (620 miles) north through Sudan and across the border to the Egyptian city of Aswan.

Waleed, a 24-year-old who works in digital marketing, said there was intense fighting as the bus headed south out of Khartoum on a road that many have used to escape the city, before looping back north.

They came to an RSF checkpoint and were allowed to pass.

"It is still very scary because you don't feel safe. It was a very long road. I have my grandmother, who is very old, this was very exhausting for her."

The bus was among the first carrying Sudanese displaced by the fighting to arrive at the Egyptian border on Friday. Border guards were flexible, Waleed said, waving through people whose passports were about to expire and even some men just over the age of 16, as security rules say adult men need a visa to enter Egypt.

From Aswan, they took a train to Cairo, completing a 72-hour journey.

Waleed is relieved to be away from the fighting, but she left behind friends and relatives including her adult brother. The family were worried they would not be able to secure a visa for him on time.

"We didn't know if he will be able to cross the border," she said in an interview at a residential compound where she is staying in Giza, across the Nile from Cairo. Since internet and phone connections have become increasingly unreliable, she has sometimes had to contact neighbours to check up on him. "He is alone, without electricity, water or food. We don't know what is happening with him," Waleed said.

The fighting in Khartoum has trapped many in their homes or neighbourhoods, destroyed or closed most hospitals, caused lengthy power and water cuts, and led to lawlessness and looting in some areas.

Air strikes and artillery bombardments have rung out across Khartoum day and night. "This was very scary for us and for people in Sudan. Children are gripped with fear," said Waleed. "Yes I survived, but I'm still worried about those I left behind. The situation is extremely catastrophic."

The violence was triggered as the army and the RSF, which jointly staged a coup in 2021, negotiated over a plan for a new transition to civilian rule. Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled.

"We wanted civilian rule," said Waleed. "We are innocent, our homes are destroyed while the head of the military council and his deputy are fighting, and we have nothing to do with this."

Egypt is home to an estimated 4 million Sudanese, and even before the fighting more were heading north to escape economic stagnation.

When Waleed's family arrived in Cairo they heard children letting off firecrackers to celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Fitr which falls at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"This is part of the trauma we are living with. Any sound of fireworks scares us," said Waleed.

Italian evacuees speak of moments of horror in Sudan

Italians who were evacuated from Sudan's capital Khartoum spoke of their ordeal on Monday night as they returned home after witnessing an unprecedented eruption of violence.

"There were checkpoints, one part was occupied by their own supporters and one part by the military," an evacuee who owns a restaurant in Khartoum, Anna, told reporters.

Another evacuee, who was working as a project manager for the Italian Agency for Development and Cooperation, Costanza Motafu, said they didn't expect the surge in hostilities to reach this point.

"We didn't expect what happened at all," she said. "Maybe some protest, some trouble in the street, but nothing this intense... And also Sudanese people were completely shocked because they haven't experienced something like this in a very long time."

Sudan's sudden slide into conflict has also stranded thousands of foreigners, including diplomats and aid workers.

The two military aircraft were carrying 83 Italian nationals and 13 citizens of different nationalities, who were all first evacuated from Khartoum and taken to Djibouti, where the planes took off from.

The first aircraft, a Boeing KC-767, landed in Rome's Ciampino airport around 1825 GMT and the second was expected to touch down later in the night.

Reuters