Massachusetts teacher and her toddler daughter are among thousands trapped in Sudan

A Massachusetts teacher and her 18-month-old daughter are among thousands of Americans trapped in war-torn Sudan.

Trillian Clifford, from Ashland, and her daughter, Alma, have been hiding from the sound of machine guns outside their apartment in Khartoum’s capital city, where Trillian teaches the children of US Embassy officials at the Khartoum International American School.

Her family at home is now calling on the US to take action and get Clifford and her daughter out of the third-largest African country as government officials evacuated nearly 100 embassy workers over the weekend.

But the White House has said it has no plans to evacuate the estimated 16,000 US citizens trapped in Sudan, even though it issued a travel advisory warning of “armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, terrorism and kidnapping.”

One American has already been killed in the conflict, and the World Health Organization estimates 413 people have been killed and 3,551 injured since the outbreak of civil war earlier this month.

Clifford and her daughter are now sheltering in the Soba region of Khartoum, where they were moved to a lower apartment after airstrikes less than a kilometer from her home.

She said WBUR they are now in a ‘relatively safe location’, although I must add as a caveat that it feels like nowhere in the city is particularly safe.

“We hear a lot of gunshots and explosions,” Clifford said in an emailed voice memo to the radio station. “There must be planes flying overhead all day.”

Clifford added that she “takes very seriously the orders from the embassy – as well as from our employers – to stay low to the ground, stay as far away from windows as possible and stay hidden because this is a very, very dangerous situation. situation to be involved in.’

The mother of one child is now trying to wean her baby off breast milk, her sister-in-law Rebecca Winter told the Boston spherenoting that ‘no humanitarian aid has been provided due to the ongoing fighting’.

“It went from everything that was perfectly normal eight days ago, to suddenly a war that started overnight,” Winter explained to WBUR.

She was told for days by the US embassy that because the fighting is so fierce – and even the Sudanese people had never seen such fierce fighting in the capital – they had no idea if or when they would be able to fetch her supplies, such as food and water.’

Winter is now calling on U.S. government officials to safely evacuate her family, who continue to experience power outages as temperatures soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Over the weekend, the State Department reaffirmed its “don’t travel” advice.

“The situation is violent, volatile and extremely unpredictable, especially in the capital Khartoum,” it added.

But on Friday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said American citizens should “make their own arrangements to stay safe in the difficult circumstances.”

“Americans should not expect an evacuation coordinated by the US government at this time,” he said. “And we expect it to stay that way.”

The US embassy also warned on Saturday that “due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and the closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to conduct a US government-coordinated evacuation of US citizens.

“If evacuation of US citizens becomes necessary, this announcement will be made public by Travel Alert and Travel Advisory,” it said.

President Joe Biden has since said in a rack that he receives regular reports from his team about efforts to help Americans trapped in Sudan “as far as possible” and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US government would “continue to assist Americans” and “continue to coordinate with allies.”

“We will continue to assist Americans in Sudan in planning for their own security and will provide regular updates to American citizens in the area,” he said in a statement. “We will also continue to work with our allies and partners, as well as our local partners, to ensure the safety of their personnel.”

Meanwhile, Christopher Maier, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity warfare, shared a path forward for Americans who may want to leave.

“In the coming days, we will continue to work with the State Department to assist U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan,” he said.

‘One of those ways is to make the overland routes from Sudan more viable. The Ministry of Defense is therefore currently considering actions that include the use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to observe routes and detect threats.’

Meanwhile, the US government has successfully evacuated nearly 100 US embassy personnel and their families from the war-torn country.

‘[Yesterday]”At 9 a.m. Eastern Time, a contingent of US troops took off from Djibouti and landed in Ethiopia,” said Army Lieutenant General Douglas A Sims II, the Joint Staff’s director of operations.

He added that it was part of the United States’ effort to close its embassy in Khartoum.

US Africa Command and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley also said they were in contact with both belligerents before and during the operation to ensure that US forces would have safe passage to carry out the evacuation.

But John Bass, a US undersecretary of state, denied claims by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Security Forces that it had assisted in the US evacuation.

And in his statement over the weekend, Biden thanked embassy staff and the US military for getting the Americans out.

“I am proud of the extraordinary efforts of our embassy staff, who performed their duties with courage and professionalism and epitomized America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan,” he said. “I am grateful for the unparalleled skill of our service personnel who successfully carried them to safety.”

The president added that the embassy is temporarily closed, but “our commitment to the Sudanese people and the future they want for themselves is endless.”

On April 15, fighting broke out in the country between the RSF and Sudan’s armed forces following disagreements over the country’s transition to civilian rule.

Both factions previously teamed up to overthrow the government in October 2021, and in December both generals signed a framework pledging to move away from military rule.

But their alliance fell apart over disagreements over the transition to civilian government, how to integrate the RSF into the armed forces, and which authority should oversee the process.

Calls for a ceasefire have since been ignored and the situation is quickly turning into a humanitarian crisis.

On Saturday, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the RSF, said “we all need to sit down as Sudanese and find the right way out to give back hope and life,” but Sudan’s army chief Mohamed Hamdal Dagalo said he wouldn’t do that. consult with the group.