A second American has been killed in Sudan in brutal fighting between rival military factions, the White House has confirmed.
National security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that after a week of terrifying violence, the government is still “actively” trying to get imprisoned Americans out.
He gave few details about how the American died or how they died, but said the fighting has subsided.
At the beginning of this week, an estimated 16,000 dual citizens were stranded in bitter clashes after the White House evacuated embassy staff on Sunday.
The Biden administration has come under fire for its response, with critics drawing comparisons to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Western countries, including the UK, have sent men, women and children on evacuation flights.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that only “dozens” of Americans wanted to leave.
Smoke rises in the capital Khartoum last week as fighting broke out between Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces
The top US diplomat said the government no longer has a specific number of Americans and only knows about those who have asked for help.
Britons have described seeing thieves and assassins roaming the streets, while the corpses of civilians killed in the fighting were scattered on the ground in scenes that have been compared to the horror film The Purge.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family,” Kirby told reporters Wednesday morning about the American accident.
“At the highest level of our government, we continue to make clear to the leaders of both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces that they have a responsibility to ensure the protection of civilians and non-combatants, including people from third countries and humanitarian personnel who works on Save Lives.’
“We’ve said this so many times that the violence is just unconscionable and it needs to stop,” Kirby added.
“We must do what is right for the Sudanese people,” Kirby continued.
“They want a return to peace and security in Khartoum and across the country, and they want a transition to civilian rule. And we have to keep working on that.
On Tuesday, a Massachusetts teacher and her 18-month-old daughter escaped the war-torn country.
Trillian Clifford from Ashland and her daughter Alma hid in their apartment for ten days after fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum.
They made their daring escape Tuesday, leaving the African country between 1 and 3 p.m. local time, according to Rebecca Winter, Clifford’s sister-in-law.
Winter said the pair still had “a few days of travel ahead of them” but hoped to fly back to the US in “a few days.”
“They’re exhausted, but seem relieved to have crossed the border,” she told the Boston Globe.
Clifford taught children of US Embassy officials at the Khartoum International American School.
The school organized the evacuation of its foreign employees, who are all traveling together, Winter said.
Due to security concerns, she has not revealed their current location.
Trillian Clifford of Ashland and her daughter Alma were among an estimated 16,000 Americans trapped in war-torn Sudan
Fighters ride in the back of an engineering vehicle (pickup with a gun turret) in the East Nile district of Khartoum on April 23
British citizens, many of whom are children, are pictured boarding a Royal Air Force aircraft after being evacuated from Sudan
Damaged buildings are seen after clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in South Khartoum town, Sudan, on Tuesday
The White House evacuated US embassy staff on Sunday, but thousands of Americans remain and President Joe Biden’s administration has ruled out any further evacuation.
The decision has been criticized by former officials, including Brett Bruen, who served as an Obama diplomat and worked to evacuate Ivory Coast during the 2004 civil war there.
In a column for DailyMail.com, he called the advice “unrealistic, dangerous and deeply irresponsible.”
“This is not the way the United States behaved when I served abroad,” he wrote, adding that “leaving Americans in the Sudan is part of a problematic Biden White House pattern.”