US completes first evacuation mission after transporting hundreds of Americans from war-torn Sudan

The first US-led civilian evacuation in Sudan has been completed after hundreds of people made the perilous journey across the war-torn country to Port Sudan.

Desperate civilians reached the port escorted by armed drones, which monitored a bus convoy transporting 200 to 300 Americans over 500 miles to Port Sudan, a place of relative safety, US officials said.

The US has been criticized by families of detained Americans in Sudan for initially ruling out any US-led evacuation, despite an estimated 16,000 Americans in Sudan wanting to leave.

Saturday’s evacuation came after US special operations forces flew briefly to the capital Khartoum on April 22 to airlift US embassy staffers and other US government personnel.

U.S. officials have previously tried to help civilians join other countries’ evacuation efforts. Pictured: British nationals about to board an RAF aircraft in Sudan

More than a dozen other countries have already conducted evacuations for their citizens from Sudan, using a mix of military aircraft, naval vessels and ground crews.

After the nation was thrown into turmoil on April 15, a broad group of international mediators — including African and Arab nations, the United Nations and the United States — have only managed to broker a series of fragile temporary ceasefires.

While they failed to stop the clashes, they created enough calm for tens of thousands of Sudanese to flee to safety.

While U.S. officials have tried to connect Americans with other countries’ evacuation efforts, they previously warned citizens to make their own way out of the country when the conflict erupted.

The latest attempt to evacuate nationals from the country came as US officials took advantage of a relative calm in the fighting and organized their own convoy for Americans from afar.

Without the evacuation flights near the capital that other countries are offering their citizens, many American citizens have been left to make the perilous overland journey from Khartoum to the country’s main Red Sea port, Port Sudan.

A Sudanese-American family making the trip previously described passing through numerous checkpoints manned by gunmen and passing the bodies and vehicles of other fleeing families who had died en route.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the convoy was carrying US citizens, local people employed by the US and citizens of allied countries.

“We reiterate our warning to Americans not to travel to Sudan,” he said.

An aerial view of black smoke rising over Khartoum, Sudan, on April 28

US officials conducted their first evacuation of their citizens in Sudan after hundreds of Americans completed the perilous journey through the war-torn country to port on Saturday

In addition to the recent efforts, US officials are also working with Saudi Arabia to see if one of the kingdom’s naval vessels can carry a larger number of Americans to Jeddah.

From Port Sudan, away from the fighting, the Americans in the convoy can search for spots on ships crossing the Red Sea to the Saudi port city of Jeddah.

US consular officials will meet the Americans once they reach port in Jeddah, but there are no US personnel in Port Sudan, officials said.

Increased evacuation efforts come after two Americans have been killed since fighting broke out on April 15.

One was a U.S. civilian whom officials said had been caught in crossfire. The other was a doctor from Iowa City, Iowa, who was stabbed to death in front of his home and family in Khartoum during the lawless violence that accompanied the fighting.

In total, the fighting in the East African country has killed more than 500 people.