US is ‘in touch with hundreds’ of Americans left in Sudan amid worsening conflict
Mike Brest
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U.S. officials are in contact with “hundreds” of Americans who remain in Sudan amid a worsening conflict between the country’s military and a rival paramilitary group.
The U.S. military evacuated embassy personnel from Khartoum, the country’s capital, over the weekend, though Americans who remain in the country now face perilous perspectives on how to leave if that’s what they want to do. There are roughly 16,000 Americans in Sudan, many of which are dual citizens, though the Biden administration has warned them for months to leave.
US MILITARY WILL NOT BE AIDING AMERICANS STUCK IN DETERIORATING SUDAN CRISIS
“We are doing everything we can do to help guide them,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said on CNN Monday morning. “If there’s a safe way to get out, we’re helping guide them and give them information. We’re in touch with hundreds of American citizens that are there who may want to leave. It’s up to them, of course, to decide to do that. We’re doing the best we can to give them the information they need.”
Kirby also said on Good Morning America that the 16,000 figure is “an estimate.”
Sudanese Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan’s military forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, have engaged in deadly clashes over the last week or so that have left hundreds killed and thousands injured.
Kirby urged Americans still in Khartoum, where the fighting is most significant, to “shelter-in-place” instead of attempting to flee. The Khartoum International Airport and its border with Chad have been closed.
Last Friday, Kirby said that Americans “should have no expectation of a U.S. government coordinated evacuation at the time” and that he expects this is “going to remain the case.”
He noted that the State Department issued a “level four” travel advisory against Sudan last October, which is meant to warn U.S. citizens not to travel there, and he referred to new guidance issued by the department from last week that said, “The situation is violent, volatile, and extremely unpredictable, particularly in the capital city Khartoum.”
The only way out is a perilous 19-hour overland journey from Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
“That appears to be a quite challenging journey given the lack of predictably available fuel, water, food, other essentials,” John Bass, the State Department’s undersecretary for management, said. “We’re not advising anyone to undertake that route necessarily. But we understand if people are going to do that, and we’re going to continue to look for ways to try to help them.”
Kirby noted there are “several dozen Americans that are making their way to Port Sudan over a ground route right now, in a U.N.-led convoy,” adding, “A convoy over which the United States has got some ISR, some intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to ensure their safety, to watch over that convoy. We still have military forces pre-positioned in the region, ready to respond, if need be.”
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Three U.S. Army MH-47 Chinook twin-rotor heavy-lift helicopters touched down outside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum Saturday evening, where special operation commandos shepherded about 100 American diplomats and their families. The military deployed additional capabilities to the region in the days before the evacuation was conducted, and they remain there looking for ways to improve safety on the 500-mile land route to Port Sudan.
“DOD is at present considering actions that may include: use of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities to be able to observe routes and detect threats,” said Joint Staff Operations Director Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims at Saturday night’s briefing, adding that other steps would include “the employment of naval assets outside the Port of Sudan to potentially help Americans who arrive at the port,” and “the establishment at the U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart of a deconfliction cell focused particularly on the overland route.”