Project Dynamo: The daring mission to rescue trapped Americans from civil war
Conrad Hoyt
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Hundreds of American citizens are trapped in Sudan as a brutal civil war rages. For many with a U.S. passport, Project Dynamo was their opportunity to get out.
The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum suspended its operations on April 22 and evacuated U.S. diplomats and their families, but help from the Biden administration for other Americans has been severely limited, and most in Sudan have largely been left to fend for themselves.
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“This is the third embassy that’s been evacuated and abandoned in the last 18 months or so with Americans left behind,” said Bryan Stern, founder of Project Dynamo, a donor-funded, veteran-led organization that extricates American civilians from conflict-laden territories, of the evacuation in Sudan. “We were, you know, we were very busy.”
To this day, Project Dynamo’s rescue operation in Sudan is the only American-led airlift of non-embassy U.S. citizens out of the country.
Project Dynamo operates in the “grey space,” as its website puts it, where the U.S. government is not operating or cannot operate. Stern, a former U.S. Navy officer, multiple-tour combat veteran, and Purple Heart recipient, makes clear that his team seeks not to interfere with U.S. operations but rather to plug the holes.
This was important in Afghanistan and crucial in Ukraine, but perhaps never as essential as in Sudan, where war broke out in mid-April between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The Project Dynamo team is comprised of former U.S. special operations and intelligence personnel. Stringently anti-political, Stern said he and his team members all work toward the same end goal.
“I’ve got MAGA hat-wearing Republicans working side by side with Hillary Clinton-for-president bumper stickers every single day,” he said. “We are truly the best part of America, where you can have real big divisions on pretty meaningful issues but for the common good.”
Stern’s team monitors the world closely. It is why the civil war in Sudan, a country in northeast Africa that many would not be able to pick out on a map, did not surprise Project Dynamo. A team flew into Sudan in late April, just about a week after fighting broke out, and rescued 86 Americans and their families.
“There’s a difference between a 911 dispatcher and a fireman,” Stern told the Washington Examiner. “We’re both.”
Project Dynamo has conducted over 450 rescue missions since 2020, saving the lives of more than 6,000 men, women, and children from areas of conflict.
On Project Dynamo’s website, there are opportunities to request an evacuation from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Sudan, and people must fill out and upload request documents, phone numbers, last known locations, and final destinations.
“By the time someone gets to us, they have begged and pleaded and asked and texted and emailed and called everyone from the ambassador to Santa Claus. Help didn’t come, and it’s not coming,” Stern said. “Then we show up. And there’s an emotional and a physical reaction that happens every single day.”
Quick to recognize successes and failings from past administrations on both sides of the aisle, Stern said he was severely bemused over the Biden administration’s refusal to airlift Americans out of Sudan, especially as other countries, including allies in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Egypt, were quick to take that action.
“I saw these things going on, and I saw other nations taking care of their citizens,” said Mohamed Mahgoub, a U.S. citizen whose wife and three children were among the dozens of evacuees rescued by Project Dynamo.
“We were trapped in a terrifying situation, and Project Dynamo came to our rescue. Thank you to Bryan, you saved me, and you saved my son’s life,” said Lameer Babikur, Mahgoub’s wife.
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As uncertainty looms in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Sudan, Stern and his team also keep a close eye on China and Taiwan. The veteran said he has tried to shut down Project Dynamo three times, hoping his work would become redundant.
“The world is becoming a more dangerous place, and the U.S. needs to be world leaders,” said Stern, who brings an American flag with him on his operations. “Firemen don’t pray for fire. … I pray for the day when we’re not busy. And I pray for the day where we can shut down … but there doesn’t seem to be any indication to do so.”