Sudan Evacuations Speed Up during Fighting Lull

Spanish military plane and military vehicles are seen departing on tarmac as Spanish diplomatic personnel and citizens are evacuated, in Khartoum, Sudan, April 23, 2023. (Spanish Defense Ministry Handout/Handout via Reuters)
Spanish military plane and military vehicles are seen departing on tarmac as Spanish diplomatic personnel and citizens are evacuated, in Khartoum, Sudan, April 23, 2023. (Spanish Defense Ministry Handout/Handout via Reuters)
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Sudan Evacuations Speed Up during Fighting Lull

Spanish military plane and military vehicles are seen departing on tarmac as Spanish diplomatic personnel and citizens are evacuated, in Khartoum, Sudan, April 23, 2023. (Spanish Defense Ministry Handout/Handout via Reuters)
Spanish military plane and military vehicles are seen departing on tarmac as Spanish diplomatic personnel and citizens are evacuated, in Khartoum, Sudan, April 23, 2023. (Spanish Defense Ministry Handout/Handout via Reuters)

European nations, China and others from around the world raced to extract thousands of their citizens from Khartoum on Monday during an apparent lull in fierce fighting between the army and Rapid Response Forces (RSF).

The sudden eruption of violence between the military and the RSF paramilitary group on April 15 has triggered a humanitarian crisis and killed 420 people.

Along with millions of Sudanese without access to basic services and trapped in their homes, thousands of foreign diplomats, aid workers, students and their families found themselves stuck in a war zone last week.

Fighter jets have bombed the capital, the main airport has been at the center of fighting and artillery barrages have made movement unsafe in and out of one of Africa's largest cities. Diplomats have been targeted in attacks, and at least five aid workers killed.

Despite sustained pressure from countries concerned by the conflict's wider repercussions as well as the safety of their nationals, the two sides have not abided by a temporary truce.

However, fighting calmed enough over the weekend for the United States to get embassy staff out by military helicopter, triggering a rush of evacuations by other countries.

At least two convoys involved in the evacuations came under attack, including one carrying Qatari embassy staff, and another carrying French citizens, one of whom was injured.

France and Germany on Monday said they had evacuated around 700 people, without giving a breakdown of their nationalities. A German air force plane carrying evacuees landed in Berlin early on Monday.

Several countries sent military planes from Djibouti to fly people out from the capital, while other operations took people by convoy to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which is about 800 km (500 miles) by road from Khartoum. From there some have boarded ships to Saudi Arabia.

Indonesia said so far more than 500 of its citizens had been evacuated to the port, and were awaiting transport to Jeddah, across the Red Sea.

China, Denmark, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden also said they had got nationals out, while Japan said it was preparing to send an evacuation team from Djibouti.

A convoy of about 65 vehicles carrying some 700 international United Nations, NGO and embassy staff and their dependents drove from Khartoum to Port Sudan on Sunday as part of the evacuations, a diplomatic source said.

The evacuation of international staff from Darfur, the western region where fighting has also escalated, is also under way, with some heading to Chad and others to South Sudan, the source said.

The fighting in Sudan has closed most hospitals and curtailed water and electricity supplies. The killing of aid workers, including three from the World Food Program, has led the UN agency to pause its operations in the country, which relies on food aid for about a quarter of its people.

The army and RSF jointly staged a coup in 2021 but fell out during negotiations to integrate the two groups and form a civilian government four years after long-ruling President Omar al-Bashir was toppled.

Their rivalry has raised the risk of a wider conflict that could draw in outside powers.

Beyond the capital, people are reported to have fled clashes in several regions including Darfur's three states, Blue Nile State on the border with Ethiopia and South Sudan, and North Kordofan State southwest of Khartoum, according to a UN update on Monday.



War Decimates Harvest in Famine-Threatened Sudan

Sudanese people fleeing the Jazirah district arrive at a camp for the displaced in the eastern city of Gedaref on October 31, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Sudanese people fleeing the Jazirah district arrive at a camp for the displaced in the eastern city of Gedaref on October 31, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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War Decimates Harvest in Famine-Threatened Sudan

Sudanese people fleeing the Jazirah district arrive at a camp for the displaced in the eastern city of Gedaref on October 31, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Sudanese people fleeing the Jazirah district arrive at a camp for the displaced in the eastern city of Gedaref on October 31, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Ahmed Othman's farm has been spared from the deadly fighting that has spread across Sudan, but the war's toll on the economy and labor market has still reached him.
"I had to sell two vehicles" to afford to harvest this season's crops, he told AFP from his large sesame farm in eastern Sudan's Gedaref state.
A year and a half of war in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and devastated harvests.
Last month, United Nations experts accused the warring sides of using "starvation tactics" against 25 million civilians, and three major aid organizations warned of a "historic" hunger crisis as families resort to eating leaves and insects.
Hundreds of farmers have been driven off their once-fertile lands and those who have managed to remain face tremendous hardships.
Gedaref state is key to Sudan's corn production, a crucial crop for a population the World Food Program warns is nearing famine -- a condition already declared at a displacement camp in the country's western region of Darfur.
"The first challenge we faced was securing funding as banks are experiencing a cash crunch due to the war," said Othman.
Cash shortages have occurred even in army-controlled Gedaref since the RSF took over the capital Khartoum and banks were ransacked.
The farmer said that without selling two out of his three vehicles he could not have afforded fuel for farm machinery or to pay workers to prepare the fields and tend to the crops.
"The second problem is the scarcity of farm workers due to the war, which has limited their movement across states," he added.
Most workers in Gedaref previously came from the adjacent states of Blue Nile and Sennar, as well as from Kordofan further away.
Giving up
However, the war has restricted inter-state movement, leaving farm owners like Othman with only a small workforce.
Another local farmer, Suleiman Mohamed, said "the shortage of workers has driven up wages, so we are relying on those already in the area, mainly Ethiopians" who have long resided in Sudan's east as refugees.
War began in April 2023 between the army under the country's de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Disruptions to the harvest this season could exacerbate the hunger crisis, made worse by restrictions on aid entry.
European and North American nations issued a joint statement last month that accused the warring sides of "systematic obstruction" of aid efforts. They said both sides should urgently admit the assistance to millions of people in dire need.
In southern Gedaref, another farmer, Othman Abdelkarim, said many have already given up on this year's season.
"Most of us have relied on ourselves for financing, and some simply opted out and didn't plant," he said, pointing to an unplanted field west of his farm.
"This crisis will delay the harvest and affect its quality," he added.
The state's agriculture ministry reported that nine million acres (3.6 million hectares) were cultivated in Gedaref this year -- five million with corn and the rest with sesame, sunflowers, peanuts and cotton.
That is less than half of the roughly 20 million acres planted annually before the war.
Farmer Suleiman Mohamed fears there is no hope for this season's crop.
"With fewer workers and delayed harvesting, we'll face losses, and part of the crop will be lost," he said from his farm in eastern Gedaref.