Expulsion of foreigners in Sudan has led to chaos

Many countries, including Canada, are advising their nationals to avoid all travel to Sudan. Canadian citizens are still advised to stay in place Stay in a safe place until the situation calms down.

The Canadian embassy in Khartoum has temporarily suspended its operations as chaos erupted with explosions and gunfire in the capital and other cities. Canadian diplomats were kicked out of the elite Navy SEALs team by US soldiers on Sunday, reports said. The New York Times.

Half an hour after midnight three helicopters landed in the open area […] While a security ring protected the plane, about 90 people boarded: 72 US embassy staff, six Canadian ambassadors and some representatives from Western embassies and the United Nations.says the newspaper.

A few hours later, according to a US newspaper report, a United Nations convoy began sailing from the city to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, while British and French diplomats were taken to an airfield outside the city, where military cargo planes awaited them.

Other groups headed for the small town of Gadarib near the border with Ethiopia, and a boat chartered by Saudi Arabia took the fleeing diplomats across the Red Sea.

In addition, more than 1,000 citizens of the European Union have been expelled, indicated Joseph Borrell, the head of European diplomacy. complex operation.

A Jordanian military plane carrying evacuees from Sudan arrived at Amman airport in the early hours of Monday, April 24.

See also  Omigron: Vaccine alone is "not enough," warns European Institute of Disease Control

Photo: Getty Images / Khalil Mazrawi

Many Arab capitals have also expelled hundreds of their nationals.

A Lebanese man arrived in Port-Sudan by bus and was ready to board a boatAFP Should have left with A shirt and pajamas. After 17 years that’s all I have left In Sudan, he added.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 420 people died and 3,700 were injured in the violence, mainly in Darfur, the capital and the west of the country.

Most of the expelled foreigners are consular staff. Many nationalities are still waiting for a place in the long convoys of white cars or branded buses that regularly leave for Port-Sudan or for air bases outside Khartoum.

Anger

Some angry and abandoned Sudanese on Sunday lashed out at Western negotiators, whom they blamed for the failure of political talks leading to civilian rule.

For many Sudanese, foreign officials have gone too far in complacency with rival generals, treating them almost like politicians because both seized power in coups and have long histories of abuse and deceit.

Some Sudanese fear that the departure of foreign diplomats could allow for an even more brutal turn in the country’s affairs.

” You got us into this mess and now you take your loved ones (important ones) and abandon us to these two murderous psychopaths. »

Thousands of Sudanese have already fled to the borders of Darfur, Egypt, South Sudan and Chad. This western region, the country’s poorest, was ravaged by a bloody war in the 2000s commanded by dictator Omar al-Bashir, driven out in 2019, particularly by General Dakhlo’s troops led by Janjaweed militias. Today.

Today, inaccessible to anyone, the area is again plagued by robberies, assaults and atrocities.

The World Food Program (WFP) reports 10 vehicles and six food trucks were stolenOne 4000 cubic meters of food This does not apply to the 45 million Sudanese, more than a third of whom suffered from hunger before the current agreement.

It turned into a battle on Saturday. But it actually brewed for weeks between the two generals. The 2021 coalition partners disagreed on the integration of the Fast Support Forces (FSR) paramilitary forces into regular troops.

Militarily, both sides are engaged in information warfare, so it is impossible to know who controls the country’s institutions or airports and what state the infrastructure is in.