The head of the Sudanese Army said on Saturday that citizens of the United States and a few other countries would be evacuated “in the coming hours” as fighting between two clashing military factions whose leaders are vying for control over the country entered its second week.
The army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is the country’s de facto leader, said in a statement that his troops would also facilitate the evacuation of diplomats and citizens from Britain, China and France, although it remained unclear how and when the departures would be organized. The international airport in Khartoum, the capital, has been closed amid the fighting, and roads across the country remain dangerous.
The claims could not be immediately confirmed. The United States Embassy in Sudan said in a security alert on Saturday that “due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens.”
Regarding possible convoys traveling from Khartoum toward the city of Port Sudan, the embassy added: “The embassy is unable to assist convoys. Traveling in any convoy is at your own risk.”
A spokeswoman for France’s Foreign Ministry said she could not confirm the evacuation of any French diplomat or citizen. A representative from Britain’s Foreign Ministry could not be immediately reached.
The announcement of the evacuations followed days of intense pressure from foreign governments to secure the repatriation of foreign nationals as nearly continuous fighting since April 15 has imperiled civilians, humanitarian workers and diplomats. An American convoy was attacked this past week, and the European Union ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his home.
Eight continuous days of war have thrown Sudan into chaos. Countless residents of Khartoum have fled the city, where bodies line the streets, to find refuge in safer suburbs and states. More than 15,000 people from the western region of Darfur have crossed into neighboring Chad, and humanitarian organizations have reported being unable to work amid the incessant fighting.
At least 256 civilians have been killed in the clashes, and at least 1,454 have been wounded since the fighting broke out between forces led by two generals who are vying for control over the country, according to the country’s doctors trade union.
On Friday, a team of experts inspected the Khartoum airport’s runways, according to a briefing circulated by a security official. The Sudanese military, which is fighting against the rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, has increased its presence on the airport’s perimeter.
Several countries have positioned planes in neighboring countries, ready to fly when the airport is clear. By one estimate, they will be able to carry up to 4,000 people.
But any flights in and out of Khartoum are risky. The area around the airport, including the military headquarters, has been the site of some of the most intense fighting over the past week. And residents said that gun battles continued to rage in several parts of the city on Saturday morning, including near the airport.
With the flights most likely to be limited to diplomatic staff, at least initially, other groups are making plans to leave the city by road. The United Nations is preparing a large convoy to leave as early as Sunday, having negotiated safe passage with the warring parties. It was unclear whether non-United Nations personnel would be allowed to join the convoy.
Road travel also involves considerable risk. Khartoum is 600 miles from the border with Egypt and 525 miles from Port Sudan — about the same distance from New York City to Columbus, Ohio, but through areas contested by the two sides.
An eruption of fighting on Friday on a major highway south of Khartoum, leading to the city of Wad Madani, forced some residents to cancel their plans of fleeing the city by that route.
Foreigners and wealthy Sudanese are turning to private security companies to help escape the city, but risks remain. The security briefing said that one convoy carrying 17 people had made a 14-hour journey from the city on Friday, only to arrive in a heavily contested area where gun battles continued on Saturday.
For many, the most immediate challenge is to safely leave the homes where they have been sheltering for the past week. One United Nations official said that a diplomatic vehicle traveling to her home had been stopped by armed men and robbed of all valuables.
When the troops, who were with the Rapid Support Forces, saw a Sudanese civilian running down the street in central Khartoum, they shot and killed him, she said.
Some people have managed to leave, however. General al-Burhan said that diplomats from Saudi Arabia had been evacuated by land to Port Sudan, in the country’s east, and flown to Saudi Arabia, with a similar operation expected to take place for Jordanian citizens. Hungary’s foreign minister said on Saturday that 14 Hungarian citizens and 48 foreign nationals, most of them American and Italian citizens, had been evacuated by sea and were headed to Egypt.
As the clashes continued for an eighth day, Sudan’s health care system was on the verge of collapse, and there were few signs that the two warring factions would stop. Out of 78 major hospitals in the country, only 55 are operational, according to the physicians association.
“The health care system is about to collapse,” Mohamed Eisa, the secretary general of the Sudanese American Physicians Association, a United States-based nonprofit, said in a telephone interview from Khartoum. “We must secure a safe passage for the injured.”
Gunfire had stopped on Friday evening, leaving residents hopeful that a break was in sight. Dr. Eisa said that for the first time, he had been able to get some sleep at his home in southern Khartoum, where the fighting has been continuous.
It did not last long.
He woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of gun fires and heavy machinery. “It was as if nothing had happened,” he said of the dashed hopes for some respite.
Constant Méheut contributed reporting from Paris.
