During fierce fighting between the Navy and a rival paramilitary group, armed Drones escorted hundreds of Americans out of war-torn Sudan on Saturday.
Unmanned aerial vehicles flew above a convoy of buses traveling 500 miles from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, to Port Sudan, located on the country’s eastern coast, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation.
Navy Helps Evacuation From Pentagon
Unauthorized to speak publicly, the official reported that several hundred Americans were on at least a dozen buses. A U.S. official confirmed on Sunday that the USNS Brunswick has arrived in Port Sudan to aid in the evacuation effort.
The official stated that it is probable that some of the U.S. citizens who arrived in Port Sudan via the U.S.-organized bus convoy will board the ship to leave Sudan, but that the specifics are still being worked out. Once the Americans have arrived safely in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. government is expected to release more precise numbers, according to officials.
The United States is “moving naval assets within the region to provide any necessary support along the coast,” as stated by Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a request for assistance from the Department of State to ensure a safe departure.
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Fighting Damages Khartoum Hospitals
Saturday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stated that “intensive negotiations” by the U.S. with the assistance of “regional and international partners” created the conditions for the evacuation of citizens and noncitizens alike, including the operation on Saturday.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a Saturday statement that U.S. citizens were among the nearly 1,900 foreign evacuees who arrived by ship in Jeddah on Saturday. There was no mention of the number of Americans on board.
The country’s two top generals, Sudan’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Burhan and his former deputy, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, a former camel dealer widely known as Hemedti who leads the rival Rapid Security Forces, continued fighting despite the extension of a fragile truce.
Co-orchestrating the October 2021 coup that led to the overthrow of the government, the two conspired together. However, their alliance quickly fell apart as they disagreed on how to oversee the military’s integration of the Rapid Security Forces and who should be in charge of the transition to a civilian government.
Numerous hospitals have been damaged as a result of the bombings, gunfights, and sniper fires in heavily populated areas. The city of 5 million people, Khartoum, is now a battleground.
The International Committee of the Red Cross released a statement on Sunday indicating that an 8-ton medical shipment containing surgical dressings, anesthetics, and other medical supplies had arrived at Port Sudan.
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