The United States military has airlifted American diplomats and their families from strife-torn Khartoum in what Washington has described as a ‘fast and clean’ operation.
According to the BBC, the Americans – numbering under 100 – were taken to safety early yesterday in three Chinook helicopters, which had landed near the US embassy.
Lt Gen Douglas Sims reportedly told the media after the operation that more than 100 US troops from the Navy Seals and Army Special Forces flew from Djibouti to Ethiopia and then into Sudan, and were on the ground for less than an hour.
Fierce violence erupted earlier this month in Khartoum between two opposing armies, Sudan’s regular army and its opponents – a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The BBC reports that although there was no sign of a formal ceasefire, it did appear that the paramilitary group, the RSF, agreed not to shoot at the American helicopters during their mission.
However, both Sudan’s regular army and its opponents claimed that a French evacuation convoy was fired at after leaving the French embassy and had to turn back. Each blamed the other for the attack, in which one French national was reportedly injured.
The Netherlands has also joined an international effort to evacuate its citizens from Sudan, working with a team from Jordan to ‘get Dutch people out of there as quickly and safely as possible’, the Dutch foreign minister said on Twitter.
[Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmichel67/32608304695]