US evacuates diplomatic staff from Sudan

Kathmandu: The United States of America has evacuated its diplomatic personnel from Sudan, President Joe Biden said on Saturday.

‘Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract U.S. Government personnel from Khartoum,’ Biden said in a statement.

In a separate statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that all US personnel and their families had been evacuated and that operations at the US Embassy in Khartoum have been ‘temporarily suspended’.

While steps were taken to evacuate government workers, the Biden administration has been clear that a broader evacuation of all US citizens in the country isn’t feasible.

Blinken said that the evacuation was conducted due to the risk posed by raging fighting to the diplomatic staff, noting that ‘suspending operations at one of our embassies is always a difficult decision, but the safety of our personnel is my first responsibility’.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the warring sides in Sudan, has also reported that a United States military mission consisting of six aircraft evacuated the US diplomats and their families from the country.

‘The Rapid Support Forces Command has coordinated with the US Forces Mission consisting of 6 aircraft, for evacuating diplomats and their families on Sunday morning,’ the RSF said in a tweet.