Hundreds evacuated from Sudan as fighting enters third week
Hundreds of foreigners fleeing Sudan have arrived in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, Saudi state media reported, as Sudan entered a third week of fighting between rival forces despite a ceasefire.
A ferry carrying about 1,900 evacuees arrived at a Saudi naval base in Jeddah, after crossing the Red Sea from Port Sudan, in the latest evacuation to the kingdom by sea, state news agency SPA reported Saturday.
The group included the first known Iranian evacuees to escape the fighting, as Iran’s foreign ministry said 65 Iranian citizens had left for Iran from Port Sudan via Jeddah.
“We were in a bad situation in Khartoum because of the war and we didn’t know what to do. Thank you Saudi Arabia. Have a safe trip to Saudi Arabia and I am very happy,” said Iranian citizen Nima Saddei, one of the evacuees.
Earlier, an Emirati evacuation plane from Sudan arrived with citizens and nationals from 16 countries, the United Arab Emirates said. About 128 evacuees, including British and American citizens, landed in the capital Abu Dhabi, where they were greeted by officials.
Separately, a convoy organized by the US government arrived in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan on Saturday, evacuating US citizens, local personnel and others, said Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US State Department.
Tens of thousands of people have been uprooted within Sudan or embarked on arduous journeys to neighboring Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and Ethiopia to flee fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Mosaab Abdel Rahman, a student in Port Sudan on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, waiting to leave the country, told Al Jazeera: “I was trapped in Khartoum for almost seven days without food, electricity or water. The conditions were really bad but thank God we managed to leave and get here. The journey was a bit difficult, but we managed and we arrived.”
Conflict enters third week
Heavy fighting could be heard on the ground near the center of Khartoum, close to the army headquarters and the presidential palace late on Saturday. Residents said gunfire and artillery continued throughout the day in the capital.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reports from Khartoum that fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF continues in Bahri, in the northern part of the capital.
“Residents have been warned to stay indoors, despite the fact that this should be a ceasefire period, where there should be a pause in the fight to ensure that people can go outside to have their first get necessities from the supermarkets and shops, or take care of their medical needs,” Morgan said.
“But that is not possible in Bahri, nor in the city of Omdurman, the sister city of the capital Khartoum, where fighting has taken place. [between the two warring sides]despite the fact that there is supposed to be a ceasefire.”
Violence erupted on April 15 when a long-simmering power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into conflict.
The violence has since killed at least 528 people and injured 4,599, the health ministry said on Saturday, but those numbers are likely incomplete.
About 75,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Khartoum and the states of Blue Nile, North Kordofan and the western region of Darfur, the UN said.
The fighting has pushed Sudan into civil war, derailing an internationally-sponsored transition aimed at establishing a democratic government and displacing tens of thousands of people to neighboring countries.
The sides have continued to battle it out during a series of ceasefires brokered by foreign powers, most notably the United States. The last 72-hour truce expires at midnight on Sunday.
Blame game
The RSF said in a statement Saturday that it shot down an army fighter jet in Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, accusing the army of violating the ceasefire with a strike there. The military has not issued a statement on the claim at the time of publication.
The military has previously blamed the RSF for violations and said on Saturday its troops continued to work to end “the insurgency”. During periods on Saturday, violence in the capital was less intense than in recent days, residents said.
Residents also reported relative calm in the town of el-Geneina in the western Darfur region after days of fighting there. The Darfur Bar Association said the death toll had reached 200 and thousands were injured.
The prospects for negotiations between the army and the paramilitaries have so far seemed bleak.
On Friday, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he would never sit down with the RSF’s “rebel leader”, referring to General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. The RSF chief, in turn, said he would not talk until after the military ceased hostilities.
The head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, said on Friday that tensions between the rival generals were “clear” before fighting broke out.
But “there was no … early warning that fighting will begin on the morning of” April 15, Perthes told Al Jazeera television, adding that efforts had been made to de-escalate tensions.