Germany Evacuating Citizens From Sudan
Germany has started evacuating citizens from Sudan, where fierce fighting between rival generals has entered its second week, the foreign and defence ministries said on Sunday.
Berlin is conducting “an ongoing evacuation operation… in coordination with our partners”, the ministries both said on Twitter.
“Our aim is to fly as many (German) nationals out of Khartoum as possible in this dangerous situation in Sudan,” the ministries said.
“Within the scope of our possibilities, we will also take EU and other nationals with us,” they added.
Several other nations have also begun evacuating their citizens from Sudan, including the Britain, France and United States.
Germany had aborted an attempt to begin evacuations on Wednesday, according to Der Spiegel magazine.
Three military transport planes, which would have carried around 150 German citizens, headed for the country but were made to turn back, it said.
The Bild daily reported on Sunday that the German government was planning two missions with A400M military aircraft.
A ceasefire has been agreed for the duration of the missions, it said.
Bild also reported that paratroopers from the German army have been sent to Jordan to potentially help with further evacuation efforts.
The fighting between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s forces and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on April 15 over a dispute on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
The violence has left at least 420 dead and 3,700 injured, according to the World Health Organization.
AFP
